Thirty-one people were killed and 23 injured when a massive rockslide hit a crowded Cairo shanty town today, sending rocks and boulders crashing down on dozens of houses.
Security and medical sources said tumbling rocks destroyed many buildings in the Manshiyet Nasser shanty town in eastern Cairo near the Moqattam plateau, its close-packed houses and narrow alleys huddled at the foot of cliffs beside a highway.
State news agency MENA said parts of the area were being evacuated because new cracks had been seen in the cliff face.
Dozens of police and rescue workers were sent to the scene, backed up by fire engines, ambulances and sniffer dogs, but locals were enraged at what they saw as an inadequate government response to the disaster.
A similar incident occurred almost 15 years ago, when a 3,000-tonne chunk of rock broke off the Moqattam plateau, an escarpment on the eastern edge of the Nile valley, and crushed houses in Manshiyet Nasser, burying at least 50 people.
