20120815
AFP
Seven people including a baby died early Tuesday as heavy rains pounded the Senegalese capital Dakar, causing partial home collapses, the national fire brigade said.

Colonel Alioune Ndiaye said the fire department arrived in the suburb of Yarakh in the east of Dakar at 5:00 am (local and GMT) at a wooden home where a wall collapsed, leaving six people dead and four seriously injured.

About two hours earlier, another wall collapsed in a home in the northern suburb of Grand-Medine.

"The wall fell on a woman who was sleeping with her baby. She let go of the child to protect herself and the baby drowned" in the rising rainwater, Ndiaye said.

He said the collapses were most likely due to waterlogging of the poorly built structures.

Senegal is at the height of its annual rainy season.