PESHAWAR: At least 13 people were killed and 20 homes destroyed by avalanches and heavy rain which struck northwest Pakistan on Sunday, officials said.
An avalanche smashed into the village of Shershal in Chitral district, killing nine people including four women and four children.
It hit eight homes at around 3am, said Sheema Ayub Khan, a spokeswoman for the Disaster Management Authority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The region has been hit by heavy snowfall that is four feet (1.2 metres) deep in some places.
Six people who had been trapped beneath the snow were rescued.
Shahab Hameed, a senior administration official in the area, confirmed the death toll, adding that most of the area’s roads had been blocked.
“We are trying to reopen the roads and help people,” he said.
A separate avalanche killed a soldier at a border checkpoint in Chitral district, a military statement said, while six more soldiers were injured.
Chitral district mayor Maghfriat Shah said the city’s airport was shut because of the weather.
Another local official Mohammad Ilyas told AFP people in the worst-hit area were facing medicine and food shortages because of road closures and flight cancellations.
The region’s electricity supply was also disrupted after the main transmission line was damaged.
In the Khyber tribal district on the Afghan border in the northwest, three infant girls were killed and two women injured when the roof of their house collapsed in heavy rain, said local administration official Niaz Mohammad.
Severe weather hits Pakistan every year, with avalanches in winter and flash floods in summer.
Heavy snow also blanketed the Afghan capital of Kabul, where the government closed its offices.
Havoc on roads
In northern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, over the past two days as many as 19 people were killed and 17 injured by avalanches, collapsed roofs and road accidents, said Naweed Frotan, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
The government was working to reach at least 12 districts in Badakhshan that had been completely cut off, he added.
The snow wreaked havoc on major roads in Afghanistan, including the Kabul-Kandahar Highway, where police and soldiers had to rescue around 250 cars and buses trapped by the storm, said Jawid Salangi, a spokesman for Ghazni province, where as much as two metres of new snow was reported.
“Some people were carried to local residents’ houses and some to military and police checkpoints,” he said, noting that officials expected the road to reopen quickly. “Fortunately we arrived on time and there is not a single causality.”
The Salang pass north of Kabul was also closed under as much as two and a half metres of snow, according to police general Rajab Salangi, who oversees the area.
“It will remain blocked until the snow is cleared from the main road, facilities are provided and it is safe to travel,” he said.
