CAPE TOWN — Flooding in eastern South Africa has killed at least 60 people, the authorities said on Wednesday, after torrential rains collapsed buildings, burst rivers and ripped sinkholes in roads.

Thousands more people were displaced, according to Lennox Mabaso, a government spokesman in KwaZulu-Natal Province, where the worst flooding occurred. Officials were providing urgent humanitarian support, he added, and had not yet fully quantified the damage from the storm.

About 10 inches of rain fell on the provincial capital, Durban, within 48 hours from Monday to Wednesday, according to the South African Weather Service, with even higher figures in surrounding areas.