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At least 49 people, including several schoolchildren, were killed in the floods that were swept through the South African province of Eastern Cape, as heavy rain and snow hit parts of the country.
“They escalate only hour by hour. The situation is so bad on site,” said Prime Minister Oscar Mabuyane in the province.
Among the recovered corpses are the four children, a driver and a conductor who stood on a bus that crossed the floods with a bridge in the city of Mthatha on Tuesday morning.
Mabuyane said that rescue efforts continued to find four other children who were in the vehicle, which has since been found on a river bank with no one.
Previously, an official had informed the private television station Newzroom Africa that eight corpses, including that of the bus driver, had been found.
The public broadcaster SABC reported that three children were saved alive on Tuesday and found that they stick to trees.
It is now known that there were 13 people on the bus, 11 of them school children.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Mabuyane visited the scene to observe rescue efforts and meet the affected communities in Decoligny, a village outside Mthatha.
Hundreds of residents were expelled, many spent the night in provisional accommodations, he said.
Mr. Mabuyane praised those who support officials in the search for the missing person and because of the alarms of their neighbors at the beginning of the floods.
Officials said 58 schools in the Eastern Cape were affected in three districts: or Tambo, Amathhole and Alfred Nzo.
“I have never seen anything like this in all the years I have lived,” said Mabuyane.
In the neighboring Kwazulu-Natal, 68 schools in nine districts were damaged, but no deaths were recorded.
The Strong snow, rain and storm winds Has also left almost 500,000 houses without electricity since Tuesday – and state electricity suppliers Eskom says that efforts are made to restore connections.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered the families of those who died, his condolences when he asked the citizens to show caution, care and cooperation, since the worst effects of the winter weather are effective across the country “.
The Eastern Cape place of the anti-Apartheid icon Nelson Mandela-Wurde together with the province of Kwazulu-Natal affected the worst affected by the icy conditions.
The bad weather has forced the closure of some large streets in the two provinces to avoid further losses.