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12/06/2005:

"African earthquake buries children in homes"

Children were buried in their homes after a powerful earthquake hit central Africa yesterday, with reports suggesting there had been a number of deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The number of deaths and the extent of the damage was still unclear last night, but local people reported that the earthquake had toppled flimsy houses in the town of Kalemie, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in eastern Congo.

"Residents told us that some people had died and others were injured but we do not have any figures yet," said Michel Bonnardeaux, a UN spokesman in the capital Kinshasa, 1,000 miles from the epicentre of the earthquake.

The UN spokesman said most of the casualties were struck by falling zinc and steel roofs. "Dozens of houses have collapsed, several children were buried by the roofs of their houses," local aid worker Dr Jean-Donne Owali told AP.

He said children had been rushed to his clinic bleeding from head wounds suffered when their mud-and-thatch homes collapsed.

A community leader in Kalemie said he had also heard of casualties. "I have heard of at least one death and many injuries, but we need to check more [in poor neighbourhoods] where houses have been damaged," Fidel Muteba told Reuters.

Francois Xavier, a local journalist, said he had seen buildings shaking. "Yes, it was very strong, everything shook for about 10 seconds," he said.

There are a number of refugee camps in the region, sheltering people displaced by Congo's long-running civil war.
guardian.co.uk