New Delhi: The strongest cyclone to hit India in five years killed at least 12 people in eastern Odisha state, before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh on Saturday where more than a million people have been moved to safety.

Cyclone Fani made landfall in the resort town of Puri on Friday with wind speeds exceeding 200 kilometres per hour before moving inland, ripping through the state capital of Bhubaneswa.

Having hit land, tropical cyclone Fani had lost some of its power and was downgraded to a 'deep depression' by the Indian Meteorological Department.

A storm surge still breached embankments to submerge dozens of villages on Bangladesh's low-lying coast, a disaster ministry official in Dhaka said.