Freetown—More than 300 people were killed in mudslips and flooding near Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown on Monday morning.
A big hill in the Regent area collapsed early on Monday following heavy cloudburst, leaving many house blanked in mud. A BBC reporter at the scene said many people may have been asleep when the mudslide happened.
The thenationonlineng.net claimed the death toll reached 800 around however the number of casualties is expected to rise. Locals were reportedly trying to excavate bodies from the rubbles and mud with their bare hands, bbcnews reports.
The worst-hit area is believed to be the Regent district on the outer edge of Freetown, where scores of houses were submerged when the hillside collapsed at about 06:00 GMT.
Red Cross spokesman Patrick Massaquoi told a news agency that 312 were confirmed dead and warned the toll could rise ahead. A Sierra Leonean disaster management official, Candy Rogers, said that “over 2,000 people are homeless” as a result of the mudslide in the Regent area, AFP reports.
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