OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Saturday 11.00am
THE death toll from floods in Zimbabwe in the wake of Cyclone Eline has risen to at least 29, with an unknown number feared killed when a bus was swept off a bridge.
At the same time at least 21 people have been killed in the Northern Province since Wednesday.
President Robert Mugabe has declared a state of disaster in three provinces in the east and south of the country.
Reports said that no survivors had been found after the bus, carrying an unknown number of passengers, was washed into the Mudzi River in the east of the country.
Seven members of one family died when their hut was swept away in the Cashel Valley area, also in the east.
The torrential storms which lashed Zimbabwe, pushed ahead of Cyclone Eline which struck neighbouring Mozambique on Tuesday, have been described as the worst natural disaster in living memory.
Northern Province provincial police spokeswoman Captain Ronel Otto on Friday said regions surrounding Thohoyandou, Giyani, Louis Trichardt and Messina were hardest hit when the rains came down again this week, after a brief reprieve.
The heavy downpours, which started a few weeks ago, have killed more than 70 people nationwide.
Otto said since Wednesday, 17 people, including two children, were reported killed when traditional clay houses collapsed on them. Two adults and two children had drowned, Otto said. A 200km stretch of the N1 motorway was closed between Messina and Louis Trichardt after the Matokos Bridge was washed away by the Dwars River. The Beit Bridge border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe was also closed. — AFP