The Mayor of Sierra Leone's capital city of Freetown - Sam Gibson has told media that rescue workers are currently preparing 270 corpses for burial - following their recovery from a mudslide in the outskirts of the city.
Sierra Leone mudslide - Eyewitness
Dozens of houses were covered in mud when a mountainside collapsed in the town of Regent yesterday morning, one of the deadliest natural disasters in Africa in recent years.
The total death toll is yet to be ascertained, but it is believed to run in hundreds.
Sierra Leone mudslide
Sierra Leone mudslide
Sierra Red Cross Society spokesman Abu Bakarr Tarawallie told Reuters by phone that 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.
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 that might be buried underneath debris. He stated that rescue centres had been set up around Freetown to register and assist victims.
The government said a number of illegal buildings had been erected in the area.