Floods kill over 300, fears rise for 600 missing

Sierra Leone entered a week-long mourning period for the victims of the flooding that has killed more than 300 people, with fears that the death toll could rise as 600 remain missing. AFP news agency reported on Wednesday that among the dead were at least 105 children. Three days of torrential rain triggered mudslides on […]

Sierra Leone entered a week-long mourning period for the victims of the flooding that has killed more than 300 people, with fears that the death toll could rise as 600 remain missing.

AFP news agency reported on Wednesday that among the dead were at least 105 children.

Three days of torrential rain triggered mudslides on Monday in the Regent area of the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown. It also caused massive flooding elsewhere in the city, one of the world’s wettest urban areas in the world. 

The exact death toll was unclear. Rescue workers recovered almost 400 bodies, Reuters reported, citing Freetown’s chief coroner.

In a statement on Wednesday, President Ernest Bai Koroma’s office asked relatives to come to the city’s overwhelmed mortuary. All unidentified corpses will be given a “dignified burial” in the coming days, it said.