Kabul: Heavy snow and avalanches have killed
at least 16 people in mountainous northeastern Afghanistan,
leaving dozens more trapped in their homes, an official said
on Tuesday.
A week of heavy snowfall cut off main roads in remote
Badakhshan province, making it difficult for rescue workers to
reach affected villages.
"So far 16 people have been killed as a result of heavy
snow and avalanches in at least six districts of Badakhshan,"
provincial spokesman Abdul Mahroof Rasikh said.
Twelve districts remain unreachable, but rescue teams
made it to Ishkashim district where around 70 families are
still trapped under snow, he added.
Heavy snowfall and avalanches kill scores of people in
Afghanistan each winter.
In 2010, avalanches killed more than 150 people in the
high-altitude Salang pass through the Hindu Kush mountain
range that connects Kabul to the north.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 16:25