Ammon News - Piled-up rubbish collapsed at a vast landfill site in the Ugandan capital, killing at least 18 people, the Red Cross said.

Fourteen other people were injured when the Kiteezi landfill, which serves as a waste disposal site for much of Kampala, collapsed late Friday. At least two of the dead were children, Kampala Capital City Authority said in a statement.

The collapse was believed to have been triggered by heavy rainfall. The precise details of what happened were unclear, but the city authority said there was a “structural failure in waste mass.”

Irene Nakasiita, a spokeswoman for the Uganda Red Cross, said the death toll reached 18 after more bodies were retrieved Sunday.

“The assessment is not yet completed,” she said, adding that rainfall was slowing the efforts of searchers digging through heaps of trash.

AP