Hundreds feared dead in Sierra Leone mudslide

International Desk: Hundreds of people are likely to have been killed in a mudslide on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, the country’s vice-president has said.

“It is likely that hundreds are lying dead underneath the rubble,” Victor Foh told Reuters at the scene of the mudslide in the mountain town of Regent, adding that a number of buildings had been erected illegally in the area.

“The disaster is so serious that I myself feel broken,” he added. “We’re trying to cordon off the area and evacuate the people.”

An Agence France-Presse journalist saw bodies being carried away and houses submerged in mud in two areas of the city, where roads were turned into churning rivers of mud.

Images shared by local media showed people waist-deep trying to traverse streets of flowing water, while a section of a hill in the Regent area was reported to have collapsed.

Flooding is an annual threat in Sierra Leone, where unsafe housing is regularly swept away by torrential rains. In the capital in 2015 floods killed 10 people and left thousands homeless.

Agencies

risingbd/Dhaka/Aug 14, 2017/Amirul