Zimbabwean rescue teams have recovered 145 bodies from a city as they prepare for two days of mourning in the wake of the devastating effects of Hurricane Idai, Zimbabwe´s rescue team said Friday.
"The actual number of dead remains unknown, but we have recovered 145 bodies from Chimanimani (near the Mozambican border)," said Zviera Chipasa, Zimbabwe´s army public relations officer, to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, Alone.
Zimbabwean President Emerson Mananjagua on Thursday declared the country´s general mourning for two days over the weekend, saying the death toll is likely to reach several hundred as searches continue for bodies.
Local government minister Julio Moyo said a number of bodies had been washed into the Mozambique border. "Authorities in Mozambique have warned us that the corpses are floating on their side of the border and we have sent our teams to retrieve them," he said.
Thousands of victims are believed to have died in Mozambique, where floods caused by the hurricane caused a 125-kilometer lagoon in the area where hundreds of thousands of people lived.
