Kenya landslide death toll to hit 18-Red Cross

NAIROBI, Aug 13, (Reuters) Rescue workers recovered a fifth body from the site of the weekend's rare mudslides in western Kenya today and said they expected the death toll to rise to 18.

The continuation of minor landslides were also slowing rescue efforts and have forced the evacuation of a whole community, said Kenya Red Cross spokesman Tony Mwangi.

''There was one this morning and one yesterday. Many of those people missing since Saturday are people who were trying to rescue those trapped after the first slide,'' he said.

''If you give us a week, the death toll should be 18. But retrieving the bodies is slow and dangerous work.'' The landslides started early on Saturday, when one struck sleeping villagers, burying their grass-thatched huts in a wave of mud. Another shortly after buried other people who had rushed to their rescue.

Television footage showed helpless villagers looking on as rescue workers dug for the 13 more people thought to be buried beneath the thick brown mire which covered the remains of huts that had stood on steep hillsides.

''We don't hold out any hope of finding survivors. This is just a retrieval operation now, and we expect to be still digging for remains in a week's time,'' Mwangi said.

Some 65 people were admitted to hospitals after Saturday's landslides. Landslides are rare in western Kenya and were the result of a few days of heavy rain combined with underground streams that loosened the soil, Mwangi said.

REUTERS PD BST2124