Sierra Leone mudslide buries houses, hundreds feared dead
Hundreds of people are feared dead and others trapped in their homes after a mudslide near Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.
A hillside in the Regent area collapsed early on Monday following heavy rains, leaving many houses completely covered in mud.
Reports from the scene indicates many people may have been asleep when the mudslide occurred.
Officials say it is too early to give a precise number of casualties.
Dozens of bodies have so far been retrieved.
Sierra Leone’s Vice-President Victor Bockarie Foh said it was “likely that hundreds are lying dead underneath the rubble”.
“The disaster is so serious that I myself feel broken,” he told Reuters news agency, adding that the area was being cordoned off as people were being evacuated.
Emergency services are at the scene trying to rescue people trapped in their homes after a section of a hill collapsed, the Sierra Leone Telegraph reports.
Images posted on Twitter show people wading through streets, waist-deep in muddy water following the downpour in and around Freetown.
Source: BBC
