CAIRO: Thirty-one people were killed and 23 injured when a massive rockslide hit a crowded Cairo shanty town on Saturday, sending rocks and boulders crashing down on dozens of houses, security and medical sources said.

Tumbling rocks destroyed many buildings in the Manshiyet Nasser shanty town in eastern Cairo near the Moqattam plateau, its close-packed houses and narrow alleys huddled at the foot of cliffs beside a highway.

State news agency said parts of the area were being evacuated because new cracks had been seen in the cliff face.

Dozens of police and rescue workers were sent to the scene, backed up by fire engines, ambulances and sniffer dogs, but locals were enraged at what they saw as an inadequate government response to the disaster.

Hundreds of weeping, yelling residents gathered round the cordoned-off site, cursing local authorities and saying they had relatives and friends trapped beneath the rubble.