Thaindian News

FAYZABAD, Afghanistan (BNO NEWS) — More than 40 people have been killed and others are missing after heavy snowfall caused two avalanches in a remote region in northeastern Afghanistan on late Monday, officials said on Tuesday. Hundreds of animals have also been killed.

The largest avalanche occurred on late Monday in the village of Deh Pasin in Shiki district, located in the remote and mountainous province of Badakhshan which faces severe snow every year between October and April. The village, located near the border with Tajikistan, can only be reached by helicopter.

The landslide buried more than 20 houses in the village, killing at least 39 people and injuring six others. Several dozen people from a nearby village reached Deh Pasin on Tuesday and used their bare hands and shovels to search for an unknown number of missing residents. Several hundred animals were also believed to have died in the avalanche.

A second avalanche in a nearby district killed five people, a provincial official said, bringing the overall death toll to at least 44.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said the U.S. government, in partnership with USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, will send supplies to the disaster-hit region through an implementing partner in Tajikistan. “Our thoughts are with those that lost their lives today, but also with their families, and with those who struggle in the aftermath of this tragedy,” the spokesperson said.

Mountainous regions in Afghanistan are prone to avalanches. In January of this year, at least 49 people were killed when a series of avalanches devastated a number of villages in Badakhshan province. More than 500 houses were buried under the snow, including up to 80 houses in Zech village alone.

And in February 2010, more than 170 people were killed when a series of avalanches struck the Salang Pass, a major mountain pass which connects northern Afghanistan and the Afghan capital of Kabul.