Mr. Randall Bassett and his wife, Carol, hope their daughter will be evacuated from the Central African country.

Twenty-year-old Miss Dana Bassett -- who is doing missionary work -- is thought to be in the United States embassy.

The couple last heard from her on Thursday when she telephoned them from her Rwanda flat.

The call came just hours after the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi died in a plane crash.

Their deaths proved the flashpoint for the fighting, with the Rwandan government claiming the plane was shot down.

"Dana said she had a headache, and that there was an uneasy quiet. There was a feeling of tension,'' Mrs. Bassett said last night from the family home in St. Anne's Road.

She added her daughter was very level-headed and unlikely to panic.

"She never appears depressed, and just puts her trust in God. We are all praying for her.'' Mrs. Bassett, principal at Somerset Primary School, said her daughter belonged to the Seventh Day Adventists.

She was on an elementary education course at Oakwood College in Alabama, but decided to take a year off to do missionary work.

Said Mrs. Bassett: "She went to Rwanda in September 1993 as part of a volunteer programme.

"She is teaching as a student missionary.'' Mrs. Bassett added her daughter taught American children aged 5-14 at a compound.

"We knew before she went there that there could be some trouble.'' The family also received a call from Brussels from a sister of a missionary.

"We were told all the missionaries were safe, although telephone lines were down,'' said Mrs. Bassett.

She added: "I'm feeling alright, and am trying to think positively. I just put my trust in the Lord.

"We've had several calls from family and friends and they are all praying for us.

"It's such a comfort to know people care.'' Meanwhile, yesterday the orgy of bloodletting in the Rwandan capital of Kigali continued.

The International Red Cross said its workers in the Central African capital reported "hundreds and hundreds of dead and thousands of injured'' and some reports spoke of thousands dead.

"The situation is confused. The capital has already been the scene of massacres,'' said Kigali Red Cross coordinator Jean-Pascal Chappa.

He said there were at least 1,000 dead, with members of the minority Tutsi ethnic group apparently the main victims.

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders said in Paris that it had counted 400 dead at Kigali's main hospital morgue.