FREETOWN (Reuters) - A team burying Ebola victims was attacked in Sierra Leone's capital on Saturday, a member of parliament said, as some residents defied a three-day lockdown aimed at halting the worst outbreak of the disease on record.
Claude Kamanda, MP for the Waterloo district of Freetown, said that armed policemen accompanying the burial team quickly arrived, causing the attackers to flee.
Sierra Leone has asked its population of 6 million to stay indoors for three days as volunteers circulate to educate people about the disease as well as isolate the sick and remove the dead.
Ebola has infected at least 5,357 people in West Africa this year, mainly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, killing 2,630 of those, according to the World Health Organisation.
(Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Leslie Adler)