Rescuers battle to reach Afghan avalanche victims
KABUL: Rescuers are battling to reach survivors of avalanches in Afghanistan’s remote, mountainous north, as the death toll topped 100 and fears are growing for dozens of people still believed trapped beneath the snow.
Aid is being delivered by helicopter to worst-hit Nuristan province, where at least 64 people have been killed — including 53 in one village, provincial governor Hafiz Abdul Qayyom told AFP.
But there has been no word yet from some villages in Nuristan which Qayyom said received nearly three metres of snow, with blocked roads and mountainous terrain slowing the rescue effort.
“We will evacuate wounded victims to the city of Jalalabad for treatment,” he said, adding that skies were clear yesterday.
The snowfall had also blocked roads and killed at least 19 people in neighbouring Badakhshan, provincial governor’s spokesman Naweed Ahmad Froutan said, adding that relief workers were struggling to get aid through by helicopter.
The series of avalanches over the weekend destroyed dozens of homes and killed livestock mostly in central and northern provinces.
Unusually, snow even fell in the southern province of Kandahar.
“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,” said Mohammad Omar Mohammadi a spokesman for the ministry of natural disaster .
Elsewhere 54 people were killed in northern and central Afghan provinces, where officials said massive avalanches destroyed 168 houses and killed hundreds of cattle.
Bad weather and deep snow had hampered efforts of rescue workers to reach the isolated villages, raising fears the toll could rise sharply, according to officials.
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, said provincial spokesman Zabiullah Amani.
“The roads to Balkhab are still blocked and we are trying to open them,” he said.
Freezing weather killed at least two people and over 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, to be a public holiday to deter non- essential travel and ensure schools were closed.
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 northwest 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 four feet (1.2 metres) 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 district, a military statement said, while six more soldiers were injured. Chitral district mayor Maghfriat Shah said the city’s airport was closed because of the weather.