At least 24 people were dead and almost 100 missing on May 18 after a monster cyclone slammed India, compounding the country’s woes as it recorded a new record 4,329 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours.

The colossal swirling system dubbed Cyclone Tauktae is the latest in what experts say is a growing number of increasingly severe storms in the Arabian Sea as climate change warms its waters.

Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power after the storm hit the Gujarat coast in western India on May 17 evening, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Winds up to 130km/h smashed seafront windows and knocked over power lines and thousands of trees, blocking roads leading to affected areas, officials said.

One support vessel serving oil rigs that were walloped by 8m waves off Mumbai sank and 96 of the 273 people who had been on board were missing, the Indian Navy said on May 18.

The defence ministry said 177 people were rescued, with warships attempting to save the rest of the crew in “extremely challenging sea conditions”.

Navy helicopters managed, however, to rescue all 137 people stuck on another barge that also slipped its anchor and ran aground. One other barge and an oil rig were also adrift.

Over 16,500 houses were damaged, 40,000 trees were uprooted and 2,400 villages were without power, Gujarat state chief minister Vijay Rupani said.

Although the cyclone was one of the fiercest in decades, better forecasting than in previous disasters meant that 200,000 people in danger zones were evacuated from their homes.