Pacific cyclone kills at least one

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South Pacific

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An official in French Polynesia says swelling ocean waters driven by Cyclone Oli have left at least one person dead on the South Pacific archipelago.

High Commissioner Eric Spitz says waters carried away the 40-year-old man as pounding rain and winds of up to 200km per hour lashed the Austral Islands, hundreds of km south of Tahiti.

Officials said on Friday that the storm was moving faster but losing intensity as it headed southeast toward Tubuai. Waves six to eight metres high were anticipated.

Hundreds of homes have been damaged in the storm and more than 4,000 evacuated as a safety precaution in more populated areas.

- AP