Landfill collapse kills 30 in Guinea

Thirty people died in Guinea's capital Conakry on Sunday when a mound of rubbish in a landfill collapsed before dawn onto neighbouring homes following heavy rains, the government said.

Six others were seriously injured in the 2:00 am (0200 GMT) incident in the Bbessia district's Dar-es-salam neighbourhood on the capital's outskirts, a government statement said.

Neighbourhood leader Lancine Sylla had previously told AFP that he feared a heavy toll.

"We have pulled out 18 bodies that were taken to the morgue," he told AFP.

Guinea's minister for territorial administration Djenabou Toure went to the scene of the accident, where AFP photographers saw excavators take part in a search-and-rescue operation through the collapsed landfill under the gaze of a crowd of onlookers.

In recent days, the government had ordered the expulsion of people and safety measures around the site because of fears of a collapse.