BUDUDA: Rescuers clawed through mud in driving rain today in a desperate bid to find

survivors from a huge landslide feared to have killed hundreds in villages in eastern Uganda.

At least 80 bodies have already been found on the slopes of Mount Elgon and at least 300 people are missing in the villages.

More torrential rain fell as rescuers dug through the mud with spades and and tools as mechanical diggers could not get up the slopes. Army helicopters flew up medical supplies to treat

the injured. After days

of heavy rain, the mudslide engulfed the villages near the Uganda-Kenya border late on Monday.

Olyamboka Sam was praying when the disaster struck.

“I was in the church when I saw the landslide coming carrying stones and trees. Everyone was running from the church,” said Sam, who was being treated for a fractured arm at a hospital in Bududa, the nearest town.

The 24-year-old man told how he saw two women, two children and a man carried away to their deaths. Other survivors said the mudslide moved so fast that victims had no chance to escape.

Teams from UN agencies were heading for the stricken villages on Mount Elgon with food and other relief items.

The Uganda Red Cross said 80 bodies had been recovered that at least 300 people were missing after the wall of mud came down the hills near Mount Elgon.

“The situation is really very terrible,” said Bududa district Vice Chairman Geofrey Natubu “People fear there are actually 300 who have died.”

“It is raining quite heavily right now, so the place is becoming impossible to reach,” he added. Doctors and paramedics at Bududa hospital struggled to cope with the numbers of injured survivors. President Yoweri Museveni visited survivors and the scene of the disaster today. Tonnes of relief aid and a helicopter carrying rescuers have been dispatched to the region.