A CYCLONE has killed eight people in the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, the home of Ronan Harvey, owner of Cotswold Airport.

 Houses in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu were destroyed and eight people have been confirmed as dead. It is believed that dozens more may have been killed.

 Mr Harvey, who is a former RAF engineer has a home on the island of Santo, Vanuatu's largest island.

Cyclone Pam  brought winds of up to 170mph as well as torrential rain.

The highly populated island of Efate, which includes the Vanuatu capital Port Vila, was directly in the path of the cyclone.

Oxfam's executive director Helen Szoke said the agency was also deeply concerned for people in Vanuatu's harder to reach outer islands.

She said:"These islands have much less infrastructure than the capital of Port Vila and are extremely remote and hard to reach in the best of times,".

'We hold grave fears for the people on these outer and remote islands. It's becoming increasingly clear that we are now dealing with a worst-case scenario in Vanuatu."

The Standard asked Mr Harvey for a comment this morning and is now awaiting a reply.

More to follow.