Reuters. A government official in Ethiopia’s Gofa District said rescuers searching for victims of landslide got trapped themselves, pushing up the death toll which was still growing as of Monday (July 22).

 

At least 150 bodies were pulled from the mud on Monday following two landslides in southern Ethiopia, local authorities said.

 

Meskir Mitku, the district general administrator of Gofa district in the Southern Ethiopia region, said women, children and local police were among the dead, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) reported.

 

Video from the scene showed rescuers digging with tools and their bare hands to find survivors and recover the dead, as grieving people gathered at the site.

 

Reuters was able to independently verify the location of the video with the government source. Reuters was able to independently verify the date with corroborating information from regional reports and Reuters coverage.