The death toll from the deadly floods in South Africa rose to nearly 400 on Friday, mainly in the Durban region on the east coast, according to local authorities.
“A total of 40,723 people have been affected. Sadly, the death toll continues to rise, with the latest recorded death toll at 395,” the Kwazulu-Natal Province (KZN, East) Department of Cooperation and Traditional Affairs said in a statement.
The rains, which reached levels not seen for more than sixty years, washed away bridges, roads and isolated a large part of the region. More than 250 schools have been affected, thousands of homes destroyed. The authorities, who spoke of an “unprecedented” disaster, fear hundreds of millions of euros in damage.