Cairo- Rescue workers are battling against a lack of access to the site of Saturday morning's rockslide on the outskirts of Cairo in which at least 20 people have been killed, witnesses have said. Hundreds of tons of limestone rock came crashing down on Saturday morning upon the Doweiqa neighbourhood of a massive shanty town known as Manshiet Nasser, on the edge of Cairo.
"This is a huge disaster," local aid worker at the scene Khalil Shaath told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "These are not small rocks, each could be 50 to 100 tons," he said.
"Everyone is trying to mobilise resources now because there are still many trapped underneath," he said.
Hundreds of people are still believed to be trapped under the debris. Army and firefighting crews with heavy-lifting equipment have arrived at the scene, although the steep topography of the area and narrow streets are hampering efforts to remove the debris.
"Everybody is praying now that we can get as many people as possible out of the debris," said Shaath.
By late afternoon on Saturday, at least 20 people were confirmed dead and 35 injured. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that he had convened an emergency meeting of his cabinet to deal with the disaster.
Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said on Saturday that all efforts were being expended to remove the injured and dead from under the rubble.
Early reports suggest that the slide may have been the result of a weakened cliff face, caused by sewage seeping into the limestone from residences at a higher level.
Some 1.3 million people live in the Moqattam area, mostly in extreme poverty. Infrastructure and services are minimal, as housing developed informally as rural populations moved to the city over several decades.
In 1994, a similar accident occurred in the Manshiet Nasser area when falling rock killed 30 people.
Residents of the area say they informed authorities - who only have loose jurisdiction over the area - a year ago that a crack had appeared in a rock overhang.
Nazif also warned at the dangers of building informal settlements in such dangerous areas. In 2007 the Egyptian government began a programme to upgrade and develop the ring of shanty towns around Cairo in which millions of Egyptians live.
