Four people were killed and nine missing after a dam overflowed in the early hours of Wednesday morning near the low-lying town of Lydenburg in northeastern South Africa, police said Wednesday.
"We have discovered four bodies and nine people are still missing. Fourteen people were admitted to Lydenburg hospital, where they are being treated for drowning and shock," Mpumalanga province police spokeswoman Inspector Mary Gama told AFP.
She said at least 56 houses in the town had been washed away.
"It is still raining but not heavily," she said, on her way to the dam, located about five kilometers (about three miles) from Lydenburg.
The flooding started about 4:00 am (0200 GMT) Wednesday after the dam overflowed, according to a Lydenburg municipality official, Alet Meek.
"The dam overflowed and a small river flowing through town flooded two streets," she said.
Town mayor Moshe Mashego told public radio SABC that they had found emergency shelter for those forced to abandon their homes in the civic center and a hotel.
He said the province had promised to assist local relief operations.
Mashego said earlier this year that the municipality had decided to raise the height of the dam wall by 1.5 meters, but this had not yet been done.
All emergency services for the area, including an air operation and dog unit, have been activated and police said local commandos had saved several people from drowning.
Flooding in suburbs around Cape Town, southern South Africa, during August left some 13,000 families homeless and was reportedly the worst in 40 years, prompting President Thabo Mbeki to declare them disaster areas -- AFP
