WATCH | FROM THE SKY: Durban's gutted buildings, snaking queues and ongoing looting

As the winter sun beat down on areas north of the Durban's CBD, smoke filtered through the sky as warehouses, factories and retail outlets cast a daunting image of what they once were.

Some buildings were completely gutted by fires after thousands of looters ravaged parts of Springfield Park, Riverhorse Valley on Queen Nandi Drive and other suburbs surrounding the city.

The aftermath of three days of chaos was captured by TimesLIVE when reporters took to the skies to get a better view of what the infrastructure damage looked like.

Carnage to infrastructure was not the only fallout from the mass looting — citizens of Durban formed snaking queues, some spanning kilometres from their sole destination — supermarkets.

Food and fuel shortages, as a direct result of the looting and protests, saw the city cut off from the rest of the country, worsening the problem.

TimesLIVE