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while three others - including two women
and one child - were away from the village
collecting water when mounds of snow
came crashing down.
Sultanhamid noted that the fatalities
included 18 children and two teachers,
who were in a mosque when the
avalanche it. The bodies were found were
buried under two meters (six feet) of
snow.
People from a nearby village were the first
to reach the site. On Tuesday, they were
joined by rescue workers from the Darwaz
district, who had walked for two days to
reach the far-flung area.
Shams Ul Rahman, the deputy provincial
governor, expressed hope that some
people might be recovered alive from
under the snow.
Afghanistan's mountainous northern areas
see heavy snowfall and avalanches every
winter.
At least 171 people were killed in February
2010, when an avalanche happened near
the Salang Pass, which is the major
mountain route connecting northern
Afghanistan to Kabul, according to the
Associated Press.
http://www.aopnews.com/today.html
Avalanche claims 18 lives in NE.
Afghan province
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, March 22 (Xinhua)
-- Eighteen people lost their lives as an
avalanche struck a village in Wakhan
district of Badakhshan province, 315 km
northeast of capital city Kabul Wednesday
night, a local official said Thursday.
Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry sent two
helicopters to help with the rescue effort
on Wednesday, but they were not able to
land near the village because of the poor
weather condition.
"The tragic incident happened in Ark
village of Wakhan district late Wednesday
night during which several houses were
smashed and 18 people including women
and children were killed," Director of the
Counter-Natural Disaster Department in
Badakhshan province Sanaullah Amiri told
Xinhua.
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