At least 77 killed after avalanches bury homes in northeast Pakistan
At least 77 people have been killed and 94 injured in northeast Pakistan after a series of avalanches destroyed and buried houses, local officials said Wednesday.
The avalanches were triggered by heavy snowfall in the Neelum Valley, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, according to local authorities.
Dozens of houses had been wrecked and buried by the snow, with most of those killed and injured in their homes when the avalanches hit, said Ahmad Raza Qadri, state minister for disaster management and rehabilitation, on Tuesday.
The death toll may continue to rise, as there are fears that many people may still be trapped.
In the aftermath, desperate villagers conducted a search-and-rescue attempt to find those buried in the avalanche, carrying shovels and wading into the deep snow.
Emergency personnel are also on the ground responding to the crisis. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday he had asked the national disaster agency, the military and federal ministers to provide humanitarian assistance to the affected residents.
Several of the injured victims were airlifted by army helicopters to the region’s capital, Muzaffarabad, for treatment, and more helicopters will airdrop food and essential supplies to residents cut off by snow.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the region’s Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan extended his condolences to those affected, adding that his administration would “leave no stone unturned to alleviate the sufferings of (the) affected population.”
The avalanches come during one of the harshest winters in 20 years. Daily life in Pakistan-administered Kashmir had been severely affected, with roads blocked by snow, communication services down, and disruptions to electric power supplies.
Abdul Rahman Sheikh, 62, said an avalanche had buried his home and seven others in his village on Monday. He dug through the snow until midnight to rescue his family, recovering his daughterin-law — who survived with injuries — and the frozen bodies of eight other family members. He decided to bury the dead first.
“I have eight dead bodies lying in the open. If I send her to the hospital, who will look after her there? And if I go along with her, who will bury the eight bodies?” Mr.
Sheikh asked mournfully.
Asif Iqbal, a 25-year-old teacher, said he heard a rumble and a crash Monday afternoon and looked outside to see rooftops of nearby houses barely peeking up from the snow.
“People were screaming and calling for help,’’ Mr. Iqbal said. “A schoolgirl from my school was buried alive under one avalanche, and we could only hear her calling for us to save her.”
“We had no tools to rescue her and were waiting for a miracle,” he continued. “Someone brought a shovel, and we dug a hole in the broken roof of her home and rescued her after three hours. It’s nothing but a miracle.”
Abdul Rahman, 29, an imam from Bakwali Bala, said he and several others had gathered their families at a house that they thought was a safe distance from avalanche-prone areas. Mr.
Rahman said the women and children in their families were told to stay at the house while the men went to neighboring villages to help.
“Suddenly a strong wind blew, and we heard the familiar roar of the avalanche,” he said. “But we could not see anything as it was dark, and the village was covered with fog.
Separately, in the country’s southwestern province of Balochistan, 16 people have died in 48 hours this week due to rain- and snowrelated incidents, said Imran Zarkoon of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority.
The powerful avalanches have also affected Indiancontrolled areas of the disputed region, with at least 10 people killed on Tuesday, officials said.