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At least 250 people have died and dozens are missing due to severe flooding in the Durban region of eastern South Africa in recent days. The provincial government of KwaZulu-Natal where the city is located has spoken of “one of the worst storms in the country’s history”: torrential rains in recent days have caused landslides and floods that have destroyed the city’s port, bridges and roads as well as many buildings and transportation across the prefecture.

Local authorities they said Many people were washed away by the floods, while others stranded in their homes were rescued. The situation is expected to remain critical for at least a few days: some groups of volunteers are working to try and clear debris from waterways; On Tuesday, the army was mobilized in the metropolitan area of ​​Durban to facilitate relief operations.

Various parts of the city are still inaccessible due to damage to the connecting roads, while the flood in the port has caused the movement of dozens of containers that were piled on top of each other. Flooding also occurred in some power plants, which led to the interruption of service in different parts of the region.

There are fears of alleged looting in parts of KwaZulu-Natal in the wake of the floods that engulfed the area. Property, vehicles and other infrastructure have been severely damaged by floods in Durban and other parts of KwaZulu-Natal. #eNCA‘s Tweet embed He has more sky. pic.twitter.com/QCXPORUYvi

– eNCA (eNCA) April 12 2022

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was accompanied by local authorities on a visit to the hardest-hit areas on Wednesday. at press release The president of KwaZulu-Natal province, Sihel Zikalala, estimated on Facebook that the damage caused by the floods amounted to several billion rand, the equivalent of several hundred million euros.

A bridge destroyed by floods outside Durban, South Africa, April 12 (AP Photo)