A landslide at a huge garbage dump on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa killed 35 people who were searching for food and other goods there, an official said on Sunday.

Hundreds of people rely on the 50-year-old Reppi dump, the city's only landfill site, to survive. They sift through the garbage for food, as well as items they can sell like recyclable metal.

"We have been scouring the site in search of victims ever since an accidental landslide occurred at 8 pm on Saturday," said local authority spokeswoman Dagmawit Moges.

"The corpses of 35 victims have been recovered so far, while two others were pulled out alive."

Twenty-eight people were injured, two seriously, she said.