Date: 10-Feb-10
Country: AFGHANISTAN
Author: Yousuf Azimy
SALANG PASS - More than 60 people were feared dead and hundreds still trapped on a treacherous mountain pass in Afghanistan on Tuesday after a series of avalanches smashed into an alpine tunnel.
Days of heavy snow triggered avalanches which hit the 2.6 km (1.6 mile) long Soviet-built Salang tunnel, the main route across the Hindu Kush mountains, connecting the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia.
Twenty-four bodies have been recovered and another 40 people are feared dead, Interior Minister Hanif Atmar told a news conference.
Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said 3,000 people had been trapped in vehicles along the mountain pass at 3,400 meters (11,000 feet). About 2,500 were rescued on Tuesday.
"A number of vehicles have been swept away by the avalanches, and the rescue operation is very difficult as the snow is up to 7 meters (yards) deep," Defense Minister Wardak said.
Abdul Mateen Edraak, head of Afghanistan's National Disaster and Preparedness Centre, said there had been 17 avalanches and more than 200 trucks, buses and cars were trapped inside the tunnel.
Atmar said 2 km of road had been cleared so far, but another 1.5 km of road was still blocked.
A Reuters reporting team at the scene saw one bus and two trucks that had been swept into the steep gorge.
Rescue workers pulled frozen corpses out of cars.
"I saw five dead bodies from a car parked behind us, and so far the government has not done enough to save our lives," Qazi Azhar, an Afghan judge who was caught in the pass, told Reuters by mobile phone.
Another passenger, Ghulam Yahya, said passengers trapped inside the tunnel were suffocating from exhaust fumes. "Many others will die if we don't get help on time," he said.
Heavy snowfall and rain also caused floods in the south of the country. Zalmay Ayoubi, spokesman for the governor of southern Kandahar Province, said six people had been killed and 10 were missing as a result of floods there.
(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
© Thomson Reuters 2010
All rights reserved
