TENS of thousands of people in Mozambique were still waiting to be rescued today as rising water levels from the worst flooding in a generation continue to devastate the country.

Specialist teams from as far as Brazil, Britain and South Africa have joined the rescue effort.

Torrential rains and severe flooding over the past month have killed at least 13 people in Mozambique, destroying thousands of homes and damaging infrastructure such as roads, bridges, schools and health facilities.

At least 642,122 people have been affected since January 7, particularly in southern and central regions, according to provisional data from the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction.

In the town of Xai-Xai, the provincial capital of Gaza Province and one of the worst-affected areas in the country’s south, authorities have warned residents of heightened crocodile risks as floodwaters spread and evacuations to higher ground continue.

Three of the people reported dead were killed by crocodiles from the overflowing Limpopo river, authorities said.

In total 125 people have died in Mozambique since the rainy season began last October.

Tomaz Antonio Mlau, who lives with his wife and two children near Marracuene, 19 miles north of the capital Maputo, told the BBC that this was the “first time I have experienced a calamity of this magnitude. Elders say a similar disaster took place in the 1990s.”

Mr Mlau and his family are now staying at one of the emergency refuges sheltering about 4,000 people.

Another in refuge, Francisco Fernando Chivindzi, from Hobjana near the Incomati River, said: “We hear that there are still some people resisting by clinging to treetops and on roofs. I wish they would heed the rescuers and join us here in this temporary shelter.”

Shafee Sidat, the mayor of the Marracuene municipality, told the BBC: “We still have people to rescue, some of whom refuse to abandon the risk areas.”