Heavy rains claim 8 lives in S. Africa

CAPE TOWN, Nov. 17 -- Heavy rains over the past few days have claimed eight lives in South Africa, the authorities said on Sunday.

The deaths were reported in the Eastern and Western Cape after heavy rains hit parts of both provinces since Friday, provincial officials confirmed.

In the Eastern Cape, six deaths have been confirmed. A mother and her four children were crossing a river on their way to church when they were swept away by rushing water.

Only the mother's body has been retrieved although the villagers searched along the river bank, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.

In the Western Cape, the bodies of two women have been found after their car was swept away by flood at Jonkershoek in Stellenbosch on Friday.

In Somerset West near Cape Town, the Vergelegen MediClinic hospital was flooded and patients were evacuated, in an eight-hour rescue mission, to alternative hospitals. The floodwater was almost knee-deep, TV footage showed.

Over the next few days the level of damage would be assessed, but until then it was impossible to determine the cost of the damage or guess when the hospital would be able to reopen, rescuers said.

According to officials, weather forecast has predicted persistent rains.