Police in Ebola-hit Sierre Leone raided a funeral on Tuesday and
arrested 13 people suspected of organising an unsafe burial, risking spreading
the disease, officers said. Police superintendent Da Samah said
“heavily-armed” police arrived just in time to stop a 50-year-old man being
interred on the outskirts of Freetown after they were tipped off about the
ceremony.
“We stopped the burial and we have put out an alert for an
ambulance which eyewitnesses said brought the corpse to the cemetery,” he told
newsmen. “We arrested those present because there was no burial permit nor any
documents relating to the burial.”
Health authorities in Freetown have recorded 3,832 of more than
10,000 Ebola deaths in the outbreak, which began in southern Guinea in December
2013 before spreading to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
