Several people died in Guinea’s capital Conakry on Sunday when a mound of rubbish in a landfill collapsed before dawn onto neighbouring homes following heavy rains, witnesses and the district’s chief told AFP.

No precise number of deaths was given.

The head of the Dar es salam suburb where the incident occurred, Lancine Sylla, said he feared a heavy toll.

“We have pulled out 18 bodies that were taken to the morgue,” he told AFP.

Guinea’s minister for territorial administration, Djenabou Toure, who went to the site, said she was waiting for a search and rescue operation to finish to give an official figure.

The government in recent days had ordered the expulsion of people and safety measures around the site because of a fear of collapses.