Landslides leave 27 dead in Cameroon's capital

YAOUNDE, Oct 09 (BBC): At least 27 people have been killed in landslides caused by heavy rains in Cameroon's capital Yaoundé, the emergency services have said. A local radio station put the death toll at 40, saying that many people are still missing.
Rescue efforts were hampered by floods, forcing locals to pull bodies out of the debris with their bare hands. Heavy rainfall caused the Mefou River to burst its banks on Sunday, submerging several neighbourhoods.
The disaster comes almost a year after at least 14 people died in another landslide in the city. The poor neighbourhood of Mbankolo was worst affected in the latest disaster, with some homes, built on slopes, collapsing and banana trees being uprooted.
The bodies of children were "spread out on the wet ground", a resident was quoted as saying by the Cameroon Voice news website. In total, 12 bodies have been identified and taken to the morgue, the private Actu Cameroun website reports.
About 25 houses were swept away by the raging floods and "many families are certainly still trapped alive", it added.