Image copyright Reuters Image caption The hillside collapsed on to dozens of houses in Regent after heavy rain

At least 600 people are still missing following a mudslide and flooding that devastated parts of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, a spokesman for the president has told the BBC.

President Ernest Bai Koroma has declared seven days of mourning while pleading for "urgent support".

Nearly 400 people are confirmed dead after a mudslide in the Regent area and floods elsewhere in Freetown on Monday.

The Red Cross has warned it is a race against time to find survivors.

Presidential spokesman Abdulai Baraytay told the BBC that bodies were still being pulled from the mud and rubble.

However, a planned a mass burial of victims on Wednesday to free up space in mortuaries has been delayed, the BBC has learned.

The BBC's Martin Patience, who is in Freetown, said workers there say they have been overwhelmed by the scale of this disaster. He described the rescue effort so far as "chaotic".

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sierra Leone mudslides: Rescue and recovery operation in Freetown

Abu Bakarr Tarawallie, a Red Cross official, said rescuers were "racing against time, more flooding and the risk of disease to help these affected communities survive and cope with their loss".

The British International Development Secretary Priti Patel said the UK already had "pre-positioned vital aid supplies" in Sierra Leone, while the United Nations said its local teams had mobilised and were supporting rescue efforts.

"Contingency plans are being put in place to mitigate any potential outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

At the scene: Emotions reaching a crescendo

By Umaru Fofana, BBC reporter, Freetown

The scene at Connaught mortuary was gut-wrenching. Bodies were lying on the floor because the mortuary had run out of space. There were hundreds of them, and I lost count of the number.

Expect more raw emotions when families go to identify the corpses.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Martin Patience reports from outside Freetown's mortuary

My own emotions have reached a crescendo and I am finding it hard to sleep.

While at the scene of the disaster, even though the sun shone brightly, I was drenched in tears to the point that I went to the washroom.

The emergency workers thought it was for reasons of hygiene, but it was to wash away my tears.

Officially, a rescue operation is under way, but it is more like a recovery operation. Only corpses are being retrieved, and ambulances are taking them to the over-crowded mortuary.

Meanwhile, the community is still coming to terms with the scale of the horror.

Ben Munson, who works for the charity Street Child in Freetown, said the stories he was hearing on the ground were "horrific".

"One lady who our Street Child team was working with was inconsolable," he told the BBC. "She had injuries on her arms and her face and she was eating the food that we were handing out, but wasn't able to speak.

"My team later managed to sort of calm her down and she explained her story, and she was pulled out of the rubble after the disaster had happened and unfortunately she had lost all of her children and her husband."

Homes in the hilltop community of Regent were engulfed after part of Sugar Loaf mountain collapsed following heavy rain early on Monday. Many victims were asleep in bed when disaster struck.

President Koroma fought back tears as he toured Regent on Tuesday and said the devastation was "overwhelming us".

"Entire communities have been wiped out. We need urgent support now," he said.

He urged people to stay away from the affected areas.

"This tragedy of great magnitude has once again challenged us to come together, to stand by each other and to help one another," he said.

Flooding is not unusual in Sierra Leone, where unsafe housing in makeshift settlements can be swept away by heavy rains.

The rains often hit areas in and around Freetown, an overcrowded coastal city of more than one million people. </s> FREETOWN: Rescue workers have recovered nearly 400 bodies from a mudslide in the outskirts of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown, the chief coroner said on Tuesday, as morgues struggled to find space for all the dead.

Dozens of houses were buried when a mountainside collapsed in the town of Regent on Monday morning - one of the deadliest natural disasters in Africa in recent years.

President Ernest Bai Koroma urged residents of Regent and other flooded areas around Freetown to evacuate immediately so that military personnel and other rescue workers could continue to search for survivors who might be buried underneath debris.

"As the search continues, we have collected nearly 400 bodies - but we anticipate more than 500," chief coroner Seneh Dumbuya told Reuters.

Hundreds of other people are missing, aid agencies said.

Bodies continued to arrive at Freetown's overwhelmed central morgue on Tuesday. Corpses were lying on the floor and on the ground outside for lack of room, a Reuters witness said.

"Our problem here is space. We are trying to separate, quantify, and examine quickly and then we will issue death certificates before the burial," said Owiz Koroma, head of the morgue, who also estimated the death toll to be in the hundreds.

To relieve pressure on the morgue, authorities and aid agencies were preparing to bury the bodies in four different cemeteries across Freetown, said Idalia Amaya, an emergency response coordinator for Catholic Relief Services.

The burials are expected to take place on Thursday, government spokesman Cornelius Deveaux said.

Medecins Sans Frontieres is providing hundreds of body bags to authorities that the medical charity kept in Sierra Leone after the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak which killed 4,000 people in the former British colony.

Sierra Red Cross Society spokesman Abu Bakarr Tarawallie said by phone he estimated that at least 3,000 people were homeless and in need of shelter, medical assistance and food. The Red Cross said another 600 were missing.

"We are also fearful of outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and typhoid," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Freetown. "We can only hope that this does not happen."

Contaminated water and water-logging often lead to potentially deadly diseases like cholera and diarrhoea after floods and mudslides.

Crowds of people gathered, waiting for news of missing family members.

"I've been looking for my aunt and her two children, but so far no word about them," said a tearful Mohamed Jalloh. He said he feared the worst.

President Koroma said in a television address on Monday evening that rescue centres had been set up around the capital to register and assist victims.

Bulldozers dug through mud and rubble at the foot of Mount Sugar Loaf, where many residents had been asleep when part of the mountainside collapsed. The government said a number of illegal buildings had been erected in the area. </s> Freetown: At least 400 people have been confirmed dead and 600 people are still missing following a mudslide and flooding in the Sierra Leone capital, officials said on Wednesday.

President Ernest Bai Koroma declared seven days of mourning while pleading for “urgent support”. According to a statement from the Office of the President, the national mourning will be observed from August 16 till August 22, during which all flags would be flown at half mast, BBC reported.

Nearly 400 people were confirmed dead after the mudslide in the Regent area and floods elsewhere in Freetown on Monday. The Red Cross warned it is a race against time to find survivors.

Presidential spokesman Abdulai Baraytay told the BBC that bodies were still being pulled from the mud and rubble. A planned a mass burial of victims on Wednesday to free up space in mortuaries was delayed, the report said.

Rescue workers described the situation as “chaotic”.

Abu Bakarr Tarawallie, a Red Cross official, said rescuers were “racing against time, more flooding and the risk of disease to help these affected communities survive and cope with their loss”.

The British International Development Secretary Priti Patel said the UK already had “pre-positioned vital aid supplies” in Sierra Leone, while the UN said its local teams had mobilised and were supporting rescue efforts.

“Contingency plans are being put in place to mitigate any potential outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Homes in the hilltop community of Regent were engulfed after a part of Sugar Loaf mountain collapsed following heavy rain early on Monday. Many victims were asleep in bed when disaster struck.

President Koroma fought back tears as he toured Regent on Tuesday and said the devastation was “overwhelming us”. “Entire communities have been wiped out. We need urgent support now,” he said. He urged people to stay away from the affected areas.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Cornnelius Deveaux said the search to identify corpses and possible survivors was still in progress as hundreds more were feared to remain missing after the mudslide hit. </s> Nearly half of the 400 people known to have died in a mudslide and flooding on the outskirts of the Sierra Leone capital Freetown have already been buried, health officials say.

The government had said mass burials would be postponed until Thursday to allow relatives to identify victims.

But the chief pathologist of Freetown told the BBC that some interments had already taken place.

About 600 people are still missing following the disaster.

President Ernest Bai Koroma has declared seven days of mourning while pleading for "urgent support".

The burials involved people who had already been identified or whose bodies were badly decomposed, Freetown's chief pathologist Dr Simeon Owizz Koroma said.

They have been taken to a mass grave in Waterloo known as the Ebola cemetery after the 2014 disease outbreak, which killed nearly 4,000 people in the country.

Volunteers said there were more bodies inside the mortuary that urgently needed to be buried because they had decomposed.

Homes in the hilltop community of Regent were engulfed after part of Sugar Loaf mountain collapsed following heavy rain early on Monday. Many victims were asleep in bed when disaster struck.

The dead included more than 100 children.

The Red Cross has warned it is a race against time to find survivors. The search is taking place using diggers and makeshift tools.

Some international aid for the thousands of people left homeless by the mudslide has begun to arrive in the country.

Flooding is not unusual in Sierra Leone, where unsafe housing in makeshift settlements can be swept away by heavy rains.

The rains often hit areas in and around Freetown, an overcrowded coastal city of more than one million people. </s> At least 600 people are still missing following a mudslide and flooding that devastated parts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, a spokesman for the president has told the BBC.

President Ernest Bai Koroma earlier pleaded for “urgent support”, saying entire communities had been wiped out.

Nearly 400 people are confirmed dead after a mudslide in the Regent area and floods elsewhere in Freetown on Monday.

The Red Cross has warned it is a race against time to find survivors.

A mass burial of victims is planned on Wednesday to free up space in mortuaries.

Presidential spokesman Abdulai Baraytay told the BBC that bodies were still being pulled from the mud and rubble.

“The entire community is now in mourning. Loved ones are still missing, well over 600 people,” he said.

The UN said its teams in Sierra Leone had mobilised and were supporting rescue efforts.

“Contingency plans are being put in place to mitigate any potential outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Homes in the hilltop community of Regent were engulfed after part of Sugar Loaf mountain collapsed following heavy rain early on Monday. Many victims were asleep in bed when disaster struck.

President Koroma fought back tears as he toured Regent on Monday and said the devastation was “overwhelming us”.

“Entire communities have been wiped out. We need urgent support now,” he said.

He urged people to stay away from the affected areas.

“This tragedy of great magnitude has once again challenged us to come together, to stand by each other and to help one another,” he said.

Flooding is not unusual in Sierra Leone, where unsafe housing in makeshift settlements can be swept away by heavy rains.

The rains often hit areas in and around Freetown, an overcrowded coastal city of more than one million people. </s> Sierra Leone's government urged family members to come to the capital's overwhelmed mortuary Wednesday to identify their loved ones' remains as the West African nation prepared to bury hundreds of mudslide and flood victims.Crews continued the grim work of extracting bodies from tons of debris after fierce storms left impoverished, low-lying areas of Freetown buried in mud from the city's hilltops. Volunteers have been digging with pick axes and, at times, only their hands.More than 300 people are confirmed dead - a third of them children - and Red Cross officials estimate some 600 others remain missing more than 48 hours after the storm hit. Thousands of people have lost their homes.President Ernest Bai Koroma's office asked relatives to come to the city's morgue, saying that all unidentified corpses will be given a "dignified burial" in the coming days. He had called for seven days of mourning starting on Wednesday.Brima Mundeh, 40, said he feared that three of his missing family members were buried under the mud unleashed by the storm Monday morning. Three more relatives were already confirmed dead. He escaped with his two children."I can't describe the magic that took me and my family out of my house . but I believe it's the work of God 'cause I don't know where the strength and power came from to get us out," he said.Amid the chaos of rescue efforts, the government has said contingency plans were being put in place to try to stem the outbreak of diseases such as cholera.Sierra Leone's government has pleaded for international assistance as it reels from yet another disaster just a couple of years after the Ebola outbreak that left thousands in the region dead.The threat of further mudslides around Freetown remained Wednesday. Many poor areas of the capital are near sea level and have poor drainage systems, which makes flooding worse during the rainy season.Freetown also is plagued by unregulated construction of large residential houses in hilltop areas. Deforestation for firewood and charcoal is another leading contributor to flooding and mudslides. </s> With hundreds dead and nearly 600 more still missing, the Holy Father is praying for the victims, their families and rescue workers.

VATICAN CITY — With hundreds dead and nearly 600 more still missing as a result of a giant mudslide that ravished Sierra Leone’s capital, Pope Francis is praying for the victims, their families and rescue workers.

“Deeply saddened by the devastating consequences of the mudslide on the outskirts of Freetown, His Holiness Pope Francis assures those who have lost loved ones of his closeness at this difficult time,” read an Aug. 16 telegram signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Addressed to Freetown’s Archbishop Charles Edward Tamba, the telegram relayed the Pope’s sympathies and assured his prayers for all who have died.

The telegram comes two days after flooding and a large mudslide killed some 400 people in Sierra Leone’s capital city of Freetown Monday, with some 600 still missing.

According to the BBC, a mass burial of victims that had been scheduled for Wednesday in order to free up space in mortuaries has been delayed as the “chaotic” disaster continues to unfold.

Flooding is not uncommon in the overcrowded town of one million residents, leaving those who live in unsafe, makeshift housing especially at risk during natural disasters. Monday’s slide is thought to be the worst incident in the past two decades.

At least 100 houses were wiped out when a hillside in Regent, a mountain town some 15 miles east of Freetown, collapsed, submerging entire buildings and taking people with them.

Bodies have continued to be retrieved from the mud and rubble, but efforts to identify them are proving difficult in the chaos.

In his telegram, the Pope not only offered his prayers for the victims, but also extended “divine blessings of strength and consolation” upon their families.

Francis also expressed his “prayerful solidarity with the rescue workers and all involved in providing the much-needed relief and support to the victims of this disaster.” </s> Massive mudslides on the outskirts of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, have claimed at least 350 lives, including 100 children.

Local media have reported more than 350 unidentified bodies are now in the morgue of the city's largest hospital.

The death toll is expected to rise after more than 1000 homes were buried in mud after a hillside collapsed in heavy rain on Monday with residents believed to be trapped inside, the Sierra Leone Telegraph reports.

A Health Ministry source spoke of up to 500 deaths, while vice president Victor Foh told journalists, "It is likely that hundreds are lying dead underneath the rubble."

Red Cross spokesman Abu Bakar Tarrawellie had earlier said the initial death toll stood at 205, but it was likely the number would climb, with rescue efforts ongoing and 600 people missing.

"The landslide has stopped. But the area is very disaster prone. It is still a considerable threat to anyone. So we encourage anyone to leave [the area]," Tarrawellie said. "The recovery is a huge challenge."

Volunteers could be seen in the neighbourhood of Lumley helping to extricate mangled bodies with their bare hands. The sound of sirens could be heard everywhere, though flooded roads hindered rescue work.

Photos published in the Sierra Leone Telegraph show people wading through streets of thick muddy water reaching up to their hips.

© RAW 2017 </s> FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — The Red Cross estimates that 600 people are still missing as the death toll from massive mudslides in Sierra Leone’s capital is certain to rise.

Bodies have begun washing up on a beach in Freetown. Workers continue to search for an untold number of people buried in their homes.

Authorities say more than 300 people were killed in and around Freetown on Monday following heavy rains. Many were trapped under tons of mud as they slept.
A mass burial of victims of the landslide is held in Freetown to free up space in mortuaries. Nearly 400 people are confirmed dead with at least 600 missing.