Mozambique storm kills one, injures many

A sudden storm with winds gusting up to 75kph killed a child, injured 78 people and displaced hundreds of families in the southern Mozambique town of Moamba, state radio reported on Monday.

The storm lasted barely 10 minutes on Saturday afternoon, but razed hundreds of flimsy homes in the town swollen with people displaced by massive flooding in 2000 and 2001.

Details of the devastation only reached the capital, 65km to the northeast, on Monday.

A 13-year-old girl was struck by a piece of zinc roofing and died, authorities said. Up to 600 families lost their homes.

The National Disasters Management Institute sent tents and tarpaulin to the area to accommodate 231 families, radio reported.

Others sought shelter in a local school, which lost part of its roof.

But many preferred to sleep in the open, next to their ruined homes, to protect their few remaining possessions from thieves.

The storm also wreaked havoc in the small town of Mapulanguene, 100km further north, on the border with South Africa.

The local police station, administrative offices, several houses and part of the frontier guards barracks were destroyed, reports said.—Sapa-AP