Kabul // More than a 100 people have been killed in a series of avalanches triggered by heavy snowfall in Afghanistan, including 50 in one village. The death toll could rise still further, officials warned on Sunday.
The avalanches struck after three days of heavy snow that has destroyed scores of homes mainly in central and north-eastern provinces. The snow has also blocked roads, making it difficult for rescue workers to reach stricken villages.
The bulk of the deaths occurred in remote Nuristan province, where at least 50 people were killed in a single village, said Mohammad Omar Mohammadi, a spokesman for the ministry of natural disasters.
“Avalanches have buried two entire villages in Bargmatal district, 50 bodies were recovered from one village while rescuers are trying to reach the other village,” he said.
Massive avalanches killed 54 people elsewhere in northern and central Afghanistan. Officials said 168 houses were destroyed and hundreds of cattle killed.
Bad weather and deep snow have hampered efforts of rescue workers to reach the isolated villages, raising fears the toll could rise sharply, according to officials.
In Badakhshan province in the north-east, at least 18 people, including three women and two children, were killed when avalanches struck their houses overnight, said provincial spokesman Naweed Frotan.
“Several dozens are still trapped, we are trying to rescue them,” he said, adding that many roads were still blocked.
Five people were killed by avalanches in the Balkhab district of Sari Pul province in northern Afghanistan and at least 70 people trapped under the snow were being rescued, provincial spokesman Zabiullah Amani said.
“The roads to Balkhab are still blocked and we are trying to open them,” he said.
Freezing weather killed at least two people and more than 100 animals in the western province of Badghis.
In Parwan province just north of Kabul, the spokesman for governor Wahid Sediqqi said 16 people died.
The government declared Sunday, a normal working day in Afghanistan, a public holiday to deter non-essential travel and ensure schools were closed.
The snow wreaked havoc on major roads in Afghanistan, including the Kabul-Kandahar Highway, where police and soldiers had to rescue around 250 trapped cars and buses, said a spokesman for Ghazni province, which reported as much as two metres of new snow.
The Salang pass north of Kabul was also closed under as much as 2.5m of snow, according to police general Rajab Salangi, who oversees the area.
“It will remain blocked until the snow is cleared from the main road, facilities are provided and it is safe to travel,” he said.
Unusually, snow even fell in the southern province of Kandahar.
Neighbouring Pakistan was also hit by severe weather, with at least 13 people killed in the north-west by avalanches or heavy rain.
An avalanche smashed into eight homes in the village of Shershal in Chitral district, killing nine people including four women and four children.
The region has been hit by heavy snowfall that is 1.2m deep in some places.
Six people who had been trapped beneath the snow were rescued.
A separate avalanche killed a soldier at a border checkpoint in Chitral, the military said, while six other soldiers were injured.
Chitral mayor Maghfriat Shah said the city’s airport was closed because of bad weather.
The region’s electricity supply was also disrupted after the main power line was damaged.
In the Khyber tribal district on the Afghan border in the north-west, three infant girls were killed and two women injured when the roof of their house collapsed in heavy rain.
Deadly avalanches are common in Afghanistan’s mountainous areas in winter and rescue efforts are frequently hampered by lack of equipment.
Despite billions of dollars in international aid after the ousting of the Taliban government in 2001, Afghanistan remains among the world’s poorest nations.
Last month heavy snowfall and freezing weather killed 27 children, all under the age of five, in Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan.
* Agence France-Presse and Reuters
