An Interior Ministry official said Tuesday that at least 10 people perished in flash floods caused by torrential rain that pounded Madagascar's capital Antananarivo overnight.

The victims were killed after "the floods caused landslides and houses collapsed," Sonia Ray, Spokesperson for the Ministry's Disaster Management office, told AFP.

According to preliminary estimates given by the National Bureau of Disaster Risk Management, the storm has injured two persons and displaced more than 500 people (BNGRC).

It warned that 20 districts in and around the 1.3 million-strong capital are on flood alert, with built-up urban areas with weak drainage systems being particularly vulnerable.

Madagascar is suffering from a natural disaster instigated by global warming, which has caused some 1.3 million people to go hungry due to droughts that struck the African island.

A drought that has spanned several years has desiccated farmland across the southern part of Madagascar, an African nation renowned for its biodiversity, with no end in sight.

The famine ravaging the tropical African island prompted its Environment Minister to speak up for her homeland at the UN COP26 in Scotland to warn other countries against the repercussions of climate change, as they could 'find themselves suffering a similar fate.