Local officials warned the number of dead will likely rise and were due to give an update on Sunday morning, as search and rescue teams raced to find 27 girls missing from a camp near the Guadalupe River,

Rescuers were searching for more than two dozen girls missing from a summer camp in Texas after a catastrophic flash flood killed at least 43 people, 15 of them children. The Guadalupe River that runs through the Hill Country in central south Texas rose by 26ft (8 metres) in just 45 minutes in the early hours of Friday,

Emergency responders continue to search for missing people and local police said efforts have been slowed by "sightseers who are making things worse."

Eyewitness Tonia Fucci recounted the destruction that followed deadly floods in Comfort, central Texas, near the Guadalupe River on July 4.