More than 300 people have died as a result of the Durban floods in South Africa.

After devastating floods caused havoc in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, the death toll has risen to over 300.

The area has been designated a catastrophe after some sections received months' worth of rain in a single day.

Officials have described it as "one of the worst weather storms in our country's history."

People have been trapped under buildings due to mudslides, and further floods are forecast.

According to reports, poor visibility is hampering the rescue effort as a helicopter continues to transport individuals to safety.

The BBC watched one such search operation on Tuesday for a 10-year-old girl who has washed away with her family of four on a flooded bridge.

Volunteers from the community jumped into the muddy river, taking turns hacking away at the branches with machetes and clearing garbage and trash that had washed downstream.

Jomba Phiri, who lives in Durban, the region's largest city, said his home was carried away by the floods.

He told the news agency Reuters, "I don't know where we're going to sleep now."

Parts of the crucial N3 highway which connects Durban to South Africa's economic heartland of Gauteng province have been blocked.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has visited the area and pledged to help.

"Even though your hearts are in pain, we're here for you," the Reuters news agency quotes him as saying.

He also described the disaster as a "force of nature", which some have disagreed with. They blame poor drainage and badly built houses in low-lying areas for the high death toll.

The KwaZulu-Natal province says it needs more funds to fix the extensive damage.

Durban Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda denied that poor drainage was to blame, saying the scale of the flood was unexpected.

Scenes of destruction are still evident throughout the area. Some of the roads to the port of Durban, one of the busiest in Africa, are impassable after the swollen river washed mud and debris onto the roads.

Operations at the port have now been suspended. A shipping container warehouse near a busy highway was severely flooded, and hundreds of containers were washed away.

In an industrial area called the Bluff, which forms part of the port, the BBC witnessed cars overturned on the road or crushed by debris. Companies are using water pumps to drain the water from their premises.

There is also a hunt for crocodiles that were washed away during the floods, although most have since been found.

Crocodile Creek Farm, about 40km (25 miles) north of Durban in Tongaat, says 12 crocodiles have been swept away after torrential rain hit the area. Ron Naidoo, a community pastor in the town of Tongaat, told the BBC he had been kept awake through the night by the rising floodwaters and had seen police drag a car out of the river with a body inside.

"It was traumatic because it is the first time that we have seen the river rise so high here," he continued.

In a statement on Facebook, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial administration estimates that billions of rands worth of damage has been caused to buildings and infrastructure, describing the severe rains as unleashing "untold destruction."

The Durban mayor told the BBC that electricity and water treatment plants had been "flooded out."

Two major networks have reported that more than 900 of their cell phone towers are down, causing communications to be hampered.

Authorities say declaring the flood-stricken area a disaster zone will "allow the province to request for emergency funding" from the National Treasury, which will help with necessary restoration work.

Looting has also been reported in Durban, which the local administration has denounced, saying, "We will not allow what is a tragic development in our province to be exploited."

People should avoid flooded highways and bridges and escape to higher ground if they reside in low-lying areas, according to the administration.

The stormy weather comes as scientists warn that climate change is causing more rain in southern Africa than usual.

According to the World Weather Attribution Service, the region was battered by three cyclones and two tropical storms in six weeks at the start of the year, predominantly affecting Madagascar, Mozambique, and Malawi and causing widespread damage and 230 recorded deaths (WWA).