One dead, five missing as fresh cyclone batters Fiji

SUVA, (Fiji): At least one person was dead and five were missing Sunday as Fiji was battered by a tropical cyclone for the second time in a month.

Cyclone Ana, a Category Two storm, slammed into the South Pacific island nation with winds up to 140 kilometres an hour (87 mph) and heavy rain, causing widespread flooding. The National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) said a 49-year-old man drowned while four fishermen and a three-year-old boy were missing.

More than 7,600 people, many of them rescued from flooded villages, were taking shelter in evacuation centres.

Local media reports said the three-year-old went missing when he accompanied his grandfather to check their boat, which was stuck in mangrove plants.