15 people died and more than 100 are still missing in a landslide in east Uganda

Police and the office of the prime minister said Thursday that heavy rains caused a landslide in eastern Uganda that buried dozens of homes and killed 15 people. At least 100 more people are still missing.

The slide happened on Wednesday in the Bulambuli area, which is about 190 miles (300 km) east of Kampala, the city.

The Uganda Red Cross Society said in a statement that at least 40 homes were totally buried and that other homes were destroyed in some way.

A spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), which is in charge of crisis reaction, said, “We have 15 dead and fears are that many more bodies are still buried.”

Besides that, he said that more than 100 people were still missing in eight towns.

Odongtho said, “We are shocked that it was so terrible.” He said that all the bridges in the area had been washed away and that the roads were knee-deep in water.

Police said that 113 people were missing and that relief operations were being held up by roads that cars and trucks couldn’t get through.

Uganda has been getting extremely heavy rain since October, which has caused floods and landslides in some places.

Police and the Uganda National Roads Authority say that heavy rains on Tuesday caused the main branch of the River Nile to burst its banks and flood a highway that connects Kampala to the northwest of the country.

Large areas on the sides of Ugandan mountains have lost their woods and other plant life to make room for farms. This has raised the risk of landslides.

The area where the fall happened is hilly and has been hit by disasters like this before, including an avalanche that killed at least 80 people in 2010.