Rescuers find body of seven-year-old boy who was swept into raging river

The body of a seven-year-old boy, swept away from Soweto bridge in Darnell into the flooding Nonoti river on Tuesday, was found on Wednesday afternoon.

A source told TimesLIVE that police divers from the Durban search and rescue unit, with Umhlali K9, IPSS Medical Rescue and KwaDukuza lifeguards, recovered the body of the boy in the Nonoti river, a kilometre downstream from the low-level bridge that he was washed off.

“The body was recovered using an inflatable rescue boat and brought ashore to the nearest access point. It was handed over to members from KwaDukuza police,” the source said.  

Rescue workers battled fast-flowing water and a pending storm on Wednesday to find the bodies of five people, including the boy, who went missing during the heavy rain in the iLembe district in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday afternoon.

IPSS Medical Rescue's Paul Herbst told TimesLIVE that rescue workers searched the river banks and the river.

“The canine unit is conducting a search along the riverbank, with the police divers as well as IPSS aquatic division. The banks and the lower-flowing water are being searched. The water here is flowing at a high rate and conditions are quite dangerous but we are doing as much as we can before the next set of weather comes in,” he said on Wednesday morning.

Another four people were reported missing in iLembe after Tuesday's heavy rains and flooding and there is no information on their whereabouts.

Two people died and 20 others were treated for minor to moderate injuries after a tornado ripped through the Mpolweni settlement near Wartburg in KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday.

Bad weather since the weekend also claimed the lives of three people, including a couple who were killed in Durban when their bedroom walls and roof collapsed on Monday.