At least 49 people are confirmed dead after flooding hit South Africa, including children whose school bus was swept away during the extreme weather, officials said.

The number of people who have died in floods in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province has risen to 57 and includes several school children, who drowned when the minibus taxi they were traveling in was swamped.

At least 57 people were confirmed dead Wednesday as floods devastated one of South Africa’s poorest provinces. Officials said the toll was expected to rise as more bodies are recovered in the search for missing people.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will visit the sites on Friday of devastating floods that have left at least 78 people dead in the southeast of the country as search and rescue operations continue for a fourth day and authorities say they expect the death toll to rise.

As the death toll rises to 67 from the recent floods in the Eastern Cape, Dr Mary-Jane Bopape., Managing Director of the South African Environmental Observation Network (NRF-SAEON), along with her research collaborators,