YAOUNDE, Nov 28 (NNN-XINHUA/AGENCIES) — A landslide killed at least 14 people during a funeral in Cameroon’s capital on Sunday, the region’s governor said.
Dozens of others were missing as rescue crews dug through the rubble with flashlights.
Rescue operations were underway for others who might have been swept up in the disaster, Naseri Paul Bea, governor of Cameroon’s Center region, told reporters at the scene.
The victims had gathered at the top of a hill for a memorial service when the ground collapsed, witnesses said.
Bea told state broadcaster CRTV that the area where the landslide took place in the Damas neighborhood of Yaounde was a “very dangerous spot,” asking people to leave before authorities come in to clear it.
“At the scene we counted 10 bodies, but before our arrival four bodies already had been taken away,” he said.
“There are also a dozen serious cases dispersed in hospitals.”
“We are carrying the corpses to the mortuary of the central hospital, while the search for other people, or corpses, is still ongoing,” he said.
Dozens of people were attending a funeral on a soccer pitch at the base of a 20-metre-high soil embankment, which collapsed on top of them, witnesses said.
Yaounde is one of the wettest cities in Africa, with dozens of steep hills. Heavy rains have triggered several devastating floods throughout the country this year. — NNN-XINHUA/AGENCIES
