Heavy overnight rains triggered a mudslide in the Regent area on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown
The section of Sugar Loaf mountain came down at around 06:00 (06:00 GMT) when many people would have been at home sleeping or just getting up for the day
The exact death toll from the mudslide and flooding elsewhere in the city is not yet known but the Red Cross has spoken of 179 deaths
Officials at the morgue at the city’s main hospital, Connaught, says that it has received more than 200 corpses and is now overwhelmed
Dozens of homes have been submerged by the mud
The building of houses without planning permission around Sugar Loaf mountain is thought to have contributed to the disaster, our reporter says
Recovery and rescue operations are still going on
Footage from around Freetown show the scale of the flooding and the power of the water:
