Morning:
9°c
Mud slide kills 86 in Uganda
3 Mar 2010Rivers of mud engulfed three villages in Uganda, burying church worshippers alive and leaving dozens missing.
The Uganda Red Cross said the death toll in Bududa, 170 miles east of the capital Kampala, was 86.
James Kasawi, 20, said: “The church collapsed. Mud covered the whole place. Five people next to me died. I only survived because my head was above the mud.”
Another survivor, Mohamed Mudindi, described a scene of panic.
“I was up in the mountain standing then I heard a loud bang then we saw smoke, then the landslide.
“We started running away from the scene, we then went to the rescue place leaving many people and animals behind. So when we went back most of our people were gone.”
Kevin Nabutuwa, of the Red Cross, said: “We expect to recover more bodies as time goes on. But the exercise is slow because we are using hoes to dig the dead bodies out of the thick mud.”
The region has long suffered from landslides but rarely as devastating as this. Officials said more than 250 people were feared missing.
