Rescuers shoveled through deep snow yesterday searching for victims of an avalanche that destroyed a village of 200 people in northeastern Afghanistan, authorities said. Forty-seven people have been confirmed dead.
“We hope that some people were inside their homes and are still alive,” said Shams Ul Rahman, deputy governor of Badakhshan Province, where the avalanche occurred on Sunday night.
“But if the snow was too heavy, they may all be dead,” he added.
The Ministry of Defense was sending helicopters to Dasty village yesterday to help with the rescue effort, Rahman said.
People from a nearby village were the first to reach the site. They were joined on Tuesday by rescue workers from Darwaz district, who walked for two days to reach the remote area.
About 100 rescuers equipped only with shovels were digging through mounds of snow looking for anyone who might have survived, Rahman said. He said initial reports were that only three women and one child survived the avalanche. They were not in the village of Dasty at the time.
Mohammad Daim Kakar, general director of the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority, said at least 47 people have been confirmed dead.
The US embassy in Kabul expressed condolences to the families of those killed.
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