JOHANNESBURG 

At least 13 people were killed and nine others seriously injured in South Africa after part of a church collapsed on them during night prayers, officials said Friday. 

Emergency services officials rushed to the site in the coastal city of Durban and transported the injured to hospitals.

“We received a call on Thursday night that part of a church wall had collapsed on congregants due to heavy rain and wind,” Nomusa Dube-Ncube, a provincial minister, told local broadcaster Enca.

According to local media, the incident happened in a packed church service at the Pentecostal holiness church in the town of Dlangubo.

Authorities are expected to launch an investigation to ascertain if the church building was structurally sound.