Afghan avalanches kill at least 124 people

Rescuers try to dig out survivors after 3 feet of snow falls.

PANJSHIR VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN — Avalanches caused by a heavy winter snow killed at least 124 people in northeastern Afghanistan, an emergency official said Wednesday, as rescuers clawed through debris with their hands to save those buried beneath.

The avalanches buried homes across four northeast provinces, said Mohammad Aslam Syas, the deputy director of the Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority. The province worst hit appeared to be Panjshir province, about 60 miles northeast of the capital, Kabul, where the avalanches destroyed or damaged around 100 homes, Syas said.

The acting governor of Panjshir, Abdul Rahman Kabiri, said rescuers used their bare hands and shovels in an effort to reach survivors. Rescue teams had been dispatched to the affected areas and casualties were expected to rise, Syas said.

The heavy snowstorms, which began early Tuesday, hampered rescue efforts. Snowfall from the storm was nearly three feet deep in places, and fallen trees blocked roads in the Panjshir Valley.

Gen. Abdul Aziz Ghirat, the provincial police chief of Panjshir, said the death toll from the avalanches was expected to rise when rescue attempts resumed at sunrise today.

Avalanches in the valley’s Dara district affected up to 600 families, according to people trying to reach the area to assist in rescue efforts.

“People there have told me that two of my relatives have been killed and eight others are still under the snow,” said an Afghan who goes by the single name Sharafudin. “My son and I are trying to get through to see if we can help find their bodies. But it will take us at least three or four hours to get there because of the snow and the road is very narrow, so we have to walk, the car can’t get through.”

He spoke at the mouth of the valley, where traffic moved at a crawl.

“We’ve had no help yet from the authorities, no medicines, no machinery to open the roads so we can get to the buried houses,” Sharafudin said.

AP Men clear snow from the road to the Panjshir province Wednesday near Kabul, Afghanistan. Avalanches after a heavy snow killed at least 124, with the toll likely to rise.