Myanmar said Monday that more than 10,000 people had been killed in the cyclone that tore into the impoverished and secretive Asian nation at the weekend, and tens of thousands more may also have died. Faced with the devastation, Foreign Minister Nyan Win said his reclusive nation would welcome international aid, as neighbouring countries and the United Nations said they were ready to assist in the recovery. State television showed images of entire communities that had flooded since Tropical Cyclone Nargis struck late Friday. Earlier, state media said tens of thousands of people may have been killed in the township of Bogalay alone. "We will welcome help from other countries, because our people are in difficulty,' Nyan Win said. The United Nations said hundreds of thousands of people had been left homeless when the storm, packing winds of 190 kilometres per hour, ripped through the countryside, destroying entire villages in its fury. Thousands of buildings were flattened as the furious cyclone also ripped power lines to shreds, uprooted trees that blocked key roads and disrupted water supplies in the main city and former capital, Yangon. "I haven't seen anything like this in my whole life,' one elderly resident told AFP. In addition to the devastation wrought by the storm, a prison watchdog said that security forces killed 36 people when they opened fire to quell a riot that broke out after the winds ripped off the roof of the nation's most notorious jail. As aid agencies struggled to rush emergency supplies of food and water into the country, the ruling junta vowed to press ahead with a referendum this weekend on a new constitution. The announcement came as aid organisations were battling the devastation on the ground and the difficulties of getting supplies and personnel into one of the world's most isolated nations. Well before the latest figures emerged, the International Federation of the Red Cross said in a preliminary estimate that several villages had been destroyed