Sierra Leone mudslides: Urgent plea for help as death toll rises
Sierra Leone needs "urgent support" for thousands of people hit by mudslides and massive flooding in the capital, the country's president says.
Ernest Bai Koroma said entire communities had been wiped out and that the "devastation was overwhelming us".
Nearly 400 people have been killed and hundreds more are missing after muddy rubble swept through the Regent area near the capital, Freetown, on Monday.
A mass burial of victims is planned to free up space in mortuaries.
Dozens more bodies were discovered on Tuesday as rescue efforts to recover people from destroyed houses in the area continue.
The Red Cross, which said that 312 bodies had been recovered on Monday, said that it was struggling to get equipment in to extricate bodies that were buried deep in the mud.
The aid agency added that an estimated 600 people were still missing.
ActionAid's humanitarian director, Richard Miller, said that "there are currently over 1,500 people reported missing", Sky News reports.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Paolo Conteh told Sierra Leone's state broadcaster that thousands of people remain unaccounted for.
Homes in Freetown were engulfed after part of Sugar Loaf mountain collapsed following heavy rain early on Monday. Many victims were still asleep in their beds when disaster struck.
It is feared the number of dead will rise further. Another 3,000 people are estimated to have lost their homes.
Ishmael Charles, a charity worker for the Healey Relief Foundation and Caritas Freetown, told the BBC that words could not do justice to the scale of the tragedy.
"You will see a huge number of people crying with those who have lost their family members," he said.
"It's very difficult to paint what the reality looks like, because it's more scary and very sad and disastrous than anyone can be able to describe."
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