Deadly cyclone plunges into Zimbabwe

<! –

->

According to officials, a tropical storm swept bridges and houses in eastern Zimbabwe, killing at least 24 people.

Hurricane Idai cut electricity and communications in parts of Manicaland Province on the border with Mozambique. Forty people have disappeared.

People fled from their homes to the slopes of a mountain and were waiting to be rescued, but strong winds prevented helicopter flights.

In Mozambique, where Idai landed on Thursday, at least 19 people died.

Floods in the rest of the country had already killed about 70 people before the storm arrived.

According to the Zimbabwean Ministry of Information, the town of Chimanimani has been cut off from the rest of the province of Manicaland. The country's national army was at the helm of the rescue efforts, he added.

The houses were destroyed by the tropical storm in Mozambique

The death toll was expected to increase as the authorities continued to badess the situation.

Jacob Mafume, an opposition spokesman, the Movement for Democratic Change, said that a "serious humanitarian crisis" [was] taking place "in the east of the country.

The cyclone hit Mozambique with winds of up to 177 km / h. It has isolated more than 500,000 inhabitants in the port city of Beira, one of the largest cities in the country. The roads were flooded and the airport was closed.

Mozambique has been hit by violent cyclones in the past, including Eline in 2000, where 350 people died and 650,000 were displaced in the wider region.

Beira has often faced the worst of storms and has sought to limit the effects of rising water levels caused by climate change through a series of infrastructure projects.