Torrential rains kill 30 people in DR Congo capital

Heavy downpours in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, Kinshasa, have left around 30 people dead while wreaking havoc in the central African megacity, an official told AFP on Sunday.

"There are many wounded who have been evacuated and for the moment we are in the 30s for the number of dead from Saturday's torrential rains," Patricien Gongo Abakazi, Kinshasa's provincial minister of public health, told AFP.

The victims either drowned or were killed when the walls of their homes collapsed, the doctor added.

After the rain poured down overnight Friday to Saturday, the rising water levels devastated several outlying and impoverished suburbs of the metropolis of some 17 million people.

The rising waters also cut off traffic on the National Road One, Kinshasa's main thoroughfare, which takes drivers from the centre to the airport, as well as in many neighbouring districts.

Flooding frequently affects Kinshasa, which sits on the bank of the banks of River Congo, Africa's second-largest after the Nile.