The China Mail - Rescuers fan out after Nigeria flooding kills more than 150

The sharp rise in the toll came as bodies were recovered nearly 10 kilometres (six miles) away from the town, where more than 250 buildings were levelled and two bridges were swept away, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, told AFP.

Husseini warned the toll could rise further, with bodies being swept down the powerful Niger River.

Gideon Adamu, head of the Red Cross in Niger state, told AFP search teams were heading toward Jebba, on the opposite side of the waterway's swampy banks.

Mokwa was hit by torrential rains Wednesday night into Thursday, with the flooding displacing more than 3,000, Husseini said. There were 121 injured in hospital, Adamu said, while more than 100 people were missing.

Nigeria's rainy season, which usually lasts six months, is just getting started for the year.

Flooding, usually caused by heavy rains and poor infrastructure, wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people across the west African country.

Scientists have also warned that climate change is fuelling more extreme weather patterns.

- 'We can't give up' -

Roads were still inundated in Mokwa on Friday, an AFP journalist observed, with Husseini saying his team would need excavators to reach bodies feared buried under the rubble.

Residents in the town, some 350 kilometres by road from the capital Abuja, were still searching for loved ones. In some cases, families were missing a dozen people.

Adamu, the Red Cross chief, told AFP "we can't give up the search as long as there are families crying out".

"If there were some bodies that were carried away by the flooding, we'll find them in the farmland on the Jebba side."

According to a tally shared by Husseini, 151 people were killed, 3,018 were displaced, 265 houses were destroyed and two bridges were washed away in the busy, rural market town.

Mohammed Tanko, 29, a civil servant, pointed to a house he grew up in, telling reporters Friday: "We lost at least 15 from this house. The property (is) gone. We lost everything."

Floods in Nigeria are exacerbated by inadequate drainage, the construction of homes on waterways and the dumping of waste in drains and water channels.

"This tragic incident serves as a timely reminder of the dangers associated with building on waterways and the critical importance of keeping drainage channels and river paths clear," the National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.

Complicating the search for missing persons was the presence of a large group of travellers staying overnight in a Mokwa mosque when the rains hit, Adamu said. The building collapsed and it was still unknown where the people had been travelling from.

President Bola Tinubu said the disaster response was being aided by security forces.

- Warning sounded -

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria's 36 states, including Niger state, between Wednesday and Friday.

In 2024, more than 1,200 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced in at least 31 out of Nigeria's 36 states, making it one of the country's worst flood seasons in decades, according to NEMA.

Describing how she escaped the raging waters, Sabuwar Bala, a 50-year-old yam vendor, told reporters: "I was only wearing my underwear, someone loaned me all I'm wearing now. I couldn't even save my flip-flops."

"I can't locate where my home stood because of the destruction," she said.

R.Lin--ThChM