Egypt: Death toll from massive rock slide 95

(SomaliNet) The death toll from a massive rock slide that crushed dozens of homes in a Cairo slum earlier in September has risen to 95, officials said.

\"Fifteen more bodies\" are still under the rubble, the official said, adding that rescue operations would continue for a few more days.

The previous toll of the number of dead after giant boulders flattened dozens of homes in the shantytown of Manshiyet Nasser on September 6 was 82.

Meanwhile, Egyptian soldiers and emergency services have tunnelled underneath the enormous rocks to search for bodies. Entire families are believed to have been buried under the pile of debris which ewerextends to a depth of 15 metres.

Estimates of the number of people killed in the disaster have been put at 500 by some television channels.

Residents have blamed the rock slide on work that had been going on for several weeks on the Moqattam hill overlooking the shantytown, and said the authorities had been warned of the dangers of just such a disaster.

Several rock slides have occurred in the area in the past, the previous most deadly incident killing 70 people in the adjacent district of Zabaleen in 1993.-AFP