Rock fall in Cairo slum kills 31

HOPES diminished yesterday for finding survivors among hundreds of people believed trapped beneath massive boulders that destroyed an impoverished neighbourhood on Cairo’s outskirts, killing at least 31 people, including whole extended families.

Anger and resentment mounted as authorities failed for a second day to get heavy machinery into the devastated shantytown to try to clear the large slabs that split away from the Muqattam cliffs early Saturday. Survivors among the 100,000 residents of the Dewika slum were also left to spend the night without shelter, despite government promises to provide it.

“The area turned into a mass grave,” one bearded man shouted, while a tearful young woman in a black robe clutched a picture of a newlywed couple whose bodies were trapped below.