By-At least 253 people have been killed in flooding in South Africa.

According to an SA local news site Eye Witness News the floods have also left thousands homeless. 

The epicenter of the flooding is in the city of Durban in Kwazulu Natal province, on the country’s east coast, where a state of emergency was declared.  

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the scene on Wednesday, where thousands are displaced amid heavy damage to infrastructure and homes. 

The death toll spiked sharply from a previous figures of 59 dead.

“As of late last night, we had received something close to 253 bodies in our two different mortuaries,” Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, the provincial health chief, told eNCA television.

Asked to confirm the number for Durban’s municipality, known as eThekwini, she said: “253 in eThekwini last night.”

Flooding is not unfamiliar to Kwazulu Natal and Durban, with up to 70 people killed in extreme weather there three years ago.