Kenya: Landslide in Nairobi kills 6, others still trapped
People watch from an iron sheet houses as rescuers retrieve bodies from the rubble following a massive boulder that crashed onto houses April 4, 2012 in the Mathare slum of Nairobi, killing at least six people and trapping many underground after a night of heavy rains.
A landslide in Kenya has killed at least six people, as many others remain trapped in the rubble, BBC News reported.
Massive boulders fell in Mathare, a Nairobi slum, early Wednesday morning after a night of heavy rain, police and the Kenyan Red Cross told Agence France Presse.
"It's by God's grace that we are alive with my family," Rose Okoth, a mother of three who managed to run out of her house in time, told AFP. "I heard a loud thud. I thought it was a thunderstorm then I heard screams and that is when I ran out to safety with my children. A few minutes later another rock fell on our house. It could have killed us."
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Officials initially reported four dead, but another two bodies were pulled out of the rubble, according to AFP. Many are still trapped beneath the landslide, but heavy rain and mud is hindering the rescue process, BBC reported.
"The main challenge at the moment is accessibility. The appropriate machinery for rescue cannot access the scene of the tragedy," the Red Cross said in a statement, AFP reported. "At the moment rescuers are using hoes and axes in the rescue efforts."
The Kenyan military had joined in the rescue mission Wednesday afternoon, AFP reported.
At least 40 homes in the slum north of Nairobi were destroyed, according to the Red Cross.