YAOUNDE, Cameroon — A landslide in Cameroon’s capital city on Sunday killed at least 14 people who were attending a funeral ceremony, authorities said.
Dozens of other people were missing as rescue crews sifted through the rubble in Yaounde, The Associated Press reported.
“We are carrying the corpses to the mortuary of the central hospital, while the search for other people, or corpses, is still ongoing,” Naseri Paul Bea, governor of Cameroon’s Centre region, told reporters, according to Reuters.
A landslide in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, killed at least 14 people attending a funeral on Sunday, the region’s governor said. Rescuers were still searching for others who might have been swept up in the disaster. https://t.co/dclIlukIjF
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The funeral was held on a soccer field at the base of a 60-foot-high embankment, The New York Times reported.
Bea told the Cameroonian national broadcaster CRTV that the search for survivors was continuing into the night.
“At the scene we counted 10 bodies, but before our arrival four bodies already had been taken away,” Bea told the news outlet. “There are also a dozen serious cases dispersed in hospitals.”
Bea said the area where the landslide occurred was “a very dangerous spot” and encouraged people to leave the area, according to the AP.
Yaounde is one of the wettest cities in Africa, Reuters reported. It is comprised of dozens of steep, shack-lined hills. Heavy rains have triggered several devastating floods throughout the country this year, according to the news outlet.
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