A giant tree that towered over Sierra Leone's capital for centuries and symbolised freedom to its early residents came down overnight during a heavy rainstorm.
President Julius Maada Bio called the toppling of the famed tree "a great loss to the nation" as crowds gathered to look at the wrecked trunk.
The tree went on to appear on the country's banknotes and be celebrated in children's nursery rhymes. Until the storm snapped its 70-metre-tall trunk near the base, the kapok tree stood in the middle of a roundabout in central Freetown, its highest branches reaching above the surrounding tower blocks.
"Shortly after that there was a heavy lightning and I heard a heavy bang – the sound of the tree falling behind me."
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