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Cairo: Hopes of finding survivors trapped under rubble began to fade on Sunday, a day after a rockslide destroyed a shanty town in Cairo.
Residents have been ordered to vacate the area due to fears that more parts of the limestone cliffs that tower above Al Deweiqa slum at the foot of Al Moqattam Hills might come tumbling down.
"There is little hope of finding anyone alive," an officer said. An estimated 500 people are believed buried under the rubble.
A security official said 31 bodies had been pulled out of the rubble and 46 people had been treated at hospitals, but many remained buried.
Earlier Sunday, furious residents hurled stones and insults at authorities for "inefficient" rescue efforts.
More than 24 hours after the incident, rescue operations were still being carried out by residents and rescuers.
Rescuers were using their bare hands to shift debris in a desperate bid to find victims while specially trained dog handlers were deployed to try to locate survivors.
"I'm the only survivor of my family as the catastrophe occurred while I was on a night shift in a shoe factory," said a tearful Hussain Sayed as he and several other dwellers like him were desperately searching for survivors in the rubble.
"We repeatedly complained to local officials about the looming danger of rocks eroded by sanitation," he told Gulf News. "They did not care because we are poor and unwanted," he added angrily.
The inhospitable area was littered with stones and belongings of the inhabitants, even as dust filled the air.
Anti-riot police, meanwhile, cordonned off the whole site.
"Upon hearing a horrible sound like an earthquake, I rushed out of my house," Hameeda Esmail, a mother of four, said. "When I came out, I found the mountain reduced to a heap of rocks."
Hameeda and her two children survived the disaster and she was still hopeful that her two other children would be pulled out alive from under the debris.
With inputs from agencies
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