Mr Fikre told the BBC that as soon as he heard of the disaster, he rushed to the church, and then to a health centre to look for his mother, but she was not at either place.
“My cousin called me after that. And then I went to the hospital. Her body was there,” Mr Fikre said.
She was among the 36 dead, with the emergency services saying that the death toll could rise as some of the injured, numbering about 200, were in a critical condition. Some of them have been transferred to Addis Ababa, about 70 km (45 miles) away, for treatment.
The archbishop of the local diocese, Megabi Hadis Nekatibeb, described the disaster as “incredibly tragic and heart-breaking”.