Twin city appeal after Sierra Leone mudslide

More than 400 people have been killed by the mudslide

The sister city of Freetown in Sierra Leone has launched an appeal to raise money for people affected by Monday's mudslide.

Hull was twinned with the West African city in 1980 due to its links with William Wilberforce and the slavery abolition movement.

More than 400 people have been confirmed dead and another 600 are missing after a hillside collapsed burying houses following heavy rain.

The appeal aims to raise £2,500.

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The campaign is being led by local group The Freetown Society which supports links between the two cities.

Kathleen Guthrie, chair of the society, said the effects of the mudslide had been "devastating" and people in Freetown were in desperate need.

"People have lost their entire homes," she said.

"Those people that have got out of their homes are either injured or just homeless.

"Nothing at all, literally the clothes they are standing in."

Hull's links with Freetown date back to the work of former Hull MP William Wilberforce.

The politician's campaigning led to the passing of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended Britain's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

Following the passage of the act, Freetown became a colony for freed slaves.