Lydenburg | Wednesday
POLICE and emergency services are searching for four people after a wooden construction on the Lydenburg dam wall gave way causing lower parts of the town to flood on Tuesday, Mpumalanga police said.
One body was recovered and another person was found alive on Wednesday morning.
Police representative Director Gert van Rooyen said police and emergency services resumed the search on Wednesday morning, and four people were still missing.
Initially nine people were reported missing, but police found a woman and two children in the evening.
A one metre high wooden construction on the dam wall gave way due to heavy rains in the area, Van Rooyen said.
He said the flooding had caused some houses to be swept away.
Initial investigations had indicated that most damage was done to household goods.
Captain Peterson Mnisi said families who lost their homes were accommodated in the local church hall, civic centre and the town’s hospital.
The flooding began around 4pm and lasted about two-and-a-half hours. – Sapa