Five people had been confirmed dead by early Tuesday morning after a storm that lashed the Durban area overnight.
Paramedics were kept busy in the early hours of Tuesday as reports of collapsed houses were received from the Malvern, Overport and Chatsworth areas.
In Ellen Road, Malvern, four people, one of them a child, died when a muddy bank collapsed onto their home. Paramedics were at the scene for hours, despite being hampered by heavy winds and rain.
In West Road, Overport area, a 70-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble alive after being trapped for over two hours when her home collapsed. The woman’s son died.
Her son, believed to be in his 20s, had sustained major injuries and there was nothing more paramedics could do for him.
#Durban im going to work pic.twitter.com/z6i04Mwi3Q
— Sifundo (@Msifundo1984) April 23, 2019
The South African Weather Services (SAWS) issued a weather warning for the eThekwini area on Monday. By the evening, disaster management teams had been activated.
Several roads in the south of the city were flooded or blocked by early Tuesday morning as the Umhlatuzana river burst its banks and flooded a bridge.
The Higginson Highway was waterlogged in both directions.
- African News Agency (ANA)
