Sierra Leone buries 461 mudslide victims, more still missing

Rescue workers are seen searching through rubbles around a house for bodies at Pentagon, in Freetown, Sierra Leone August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone has buried 461 victims of a mudslide that swept away homes on the edge of the capital this week, an official at the central morgue said on Friday.

Rescue workers continued bringing bodies to the morgue and those buried included 156 children, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak about the figures.

Displaced victims of a flash flood, which came after the mudslide, are seen sharing vegetable oil at a World Food distribution program, at Pentagon, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

The government has not given a death toll from the disaster. The Red Cross said on Friday that more than 600 people are still missing, and a search continues for corpses buried in the mud.

The mudslide on Monday was one of Africa's worst flood-related disasters in living memory and struck Sierra Leone only a year after it began its recovery from the 2014-16 Ebola epidemic that killed 4,000 people in the former British colony.

President Ernest Bai Koroma attended a mass burial on Thursday organized by the government at a cemetery outside Freetown where many Ebola victims had also been buried.

Members of the victim recovery team are seen discussing after they recovered another body from a flash flood that ravaged valley along Makayama, in Freetown, Sierra Leone August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Aid agencies have warned that there is a risk of contamination and disease outbreaks if bodies cannot be found.

"Bodies are still coming," said the morgue official. Six bodies were collected Thursday night in the town of Regent, the worst-hit area, and one was found Friday morning on a beach, he said.

Displaced victims of the flash flood after the mudslide are seen sharing vegetable oil at a world food programe distribution at Pentagon, Regent town, Sierra Leone August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

(Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Toby Davis)

A man helps a woman cross a log bridge after the flash flood washed away a concrete bridge at Pentagon, in Freetown August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Victims of the flash flood gather at the IDP centre at Makayama, in Freetown August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

A man digs through mud and debris left in a house after the flood flash at Pentagon, Regent town, Sierra Leone August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Rescue workers are seen searching through rubble and debris around a house for bodies at Pentagon, Regent town, Sierra Leone August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Flood level marks are seen on the wall inside a room filled with muds and debris in a house after the flash flood at Pentagon, Regent town, Sierra Leone August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

A woman holds a flak jacket of a soldier who she said died rescuing people from the flash flood at Pentagon, Regent town, Sierra Leone August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde