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

"There are many wounded who have been evacuated and for the moment we are in the 30s for the number of dead," 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.

The rising waters likewise 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.

"At around 2 pm, we suddenly noticed that the water was rising in the plot, and it just kept getting higher. As a precaution, we took the children to flee, as it was difficult to get through in some places", said Orline, a resident of the Masina commune.

In the Debonhomme district to the east of the city, dozens of cars were swallowed up by the waters, while some residents had to make their way through the streets paddling in dug-out canoes or by swimming, AFP journalists saw.

Some victims were also trapped in the upper storeys of their homes, where the water had invaded the ground floor.

The floods have caused huge traffic jams in a city where chronic congestion is the norm.

Neighbouring Kongo-Central province was also hit by the deluge.

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

In November 2019, around 40 people died in the capital after torrential rains caused flooding and landslides.