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Liberian security forces seal slum to halt Ebola

Children surround a man, left, that fell down while walking on a street suspected of having contracted the Ebola virus in the city of Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014. The World Health Organization says the outbreak has killed more than 1,200 people, while authorities struggle to contain its spread and treat the sick. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh) Children surround a man, left, that fell down while walking on a street suspected of having contracted the Ebola virus in the city of Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014. The World Health Organization says the outbreak has killed more than 1,200 people, while authorities struggle to contain its spread and treat the sick. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)

By Associated Press August 20, 2014 1 min read

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) – Security forces are enforcing a quarantine around a slum in the Liberian capital, where looters raided an Ebola screening center over the weekend and removed contaminated sheets and other items.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf also imposed a nighttime curfew, saying that authorities have not been able to curtail the spread of the dreaded disease in the face of defiance of their recommendations.

During the raid this weekend in West Point slum, bloody items were stolen and potential Ebola patients fled. Security forces are blocking anyone from entering or leaving the neighborhood on Wednesday. A coast guard boat was patrolling waters around the area.

Ebola has killed at least 1,229 of the more than 2,200 people it has sickened in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria in the current outbreak.