Helicopters remove avalanche dead
Source: Agencies |
February 11, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
HELICOPTERS ferried rescuers to and bodies away from the site of massive avalanches that blocked a mountain pass north of Kabul as the death toll soared to 166 yesterday.
Officials said hundreds more remained trapped in snowbound cars.
Afghan army troops dug through huge snowdrifts trying to rescue people from buried vehicles in the Salang Pass, a key road that connects the Afghan capital with the north.
The 4 kilometers of road that were subsumed in the avalanches have been cleared of snow, but are littered with abandoned or snow-packed cars that still make much of it impassable, said public works minister Suharab Ali Safari.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said rescuers had recovered 166 bodies from the Salang Pass, 115 kilometers north of Kabul, over the past two days.
Some of the victims were found frozen to death inside their vehicles, while in other cases, their bodies were strewn along the road, he said.
Bashary said last night that the rescue operation was "95 percent over," suggesting authorities did not expected further significant increases in the death toll.
President Hamid Karzai expressed his sorrow for the increasing death toll in a statement.
More than two dozen avalanches - which were triggered on Monday - poured tons of snow and ice on the pass. The 2.6 kilometer Salang Tunnel, a Soviet-built landmark dating from the 1960s through the Hindu Kush mountains, was cut off, with dozens of cars, buses and trucks jammed inside.
At a news conference in Kabul, Bashary said ambulances, bulldozers and other road-clearing equipment were now able to get to the site. About 2,600 people have been rescued so far, he said.
Some 400 police, along with 100 local volunteers, were involved in the efforts to dig out survivors. Among those rescued were seven children whose mother had died.
Emergency rescue workers said among the dozens of vehicles stuck in the high drifts of snow were two buses. In one, at least 15 people were found dead.
Officials said hundreds more remained trapped in snowbound cars.
Afghan army troops dug through huge snowdrifts trying to rescue people from buried vehicles in the Salang Pass, a key road that connects the Afghan capital with the north.
The 4 kilometers of road that were subsumed in the avalanches have been cleared of snow, but are littered with abandoned or snow-packed cars that still make much of it impassable, said public works minister Suharab Ali Safari.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said rescuers had recovered 166 bodies from the Salang Pass, 115 kilometers north of Kabul, over the past two days.
Some of the victims were found frozen to death inside their vehicles, while in other cases, their bodies were strewn along the road, he said.
Bashary said last night that the rescue operation was "95 percent over," suggesting authorities did not expected further significant increases in the death toll.
President Hamid Karzai expressed his sorrow for the increasing death toll in a statement.
More than two dozen avalanches - which were triggered on Monday - poured tons of snow and ice on the pass. The 2.6 kilometer Salang Tunnel, a Soviet-built landmark dating from the 1960s through the Hindu Kush mountains, was cut off, with dozens of cars, buses and trucks jammed inside.
At a news conference in Kabul, Bashary said ambulances, bulldozers and other road-clearing equipment were now able to get to the site. About 2,600 people have been rescued so far, he said.
Some 400 police, along with 100 local volunteers, were involved in the efforts to dig out survivors. Among those rescued were seven children whose mother had died.
Emergency rescue workers said among the dozens of vehicles stuck in the high drifts of snow were two buses. In one, at least 15 people were found dead.
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