Afghan landslide claims 300 lives
Print Edition
Rescue teams yesterday abandoned the search for survivors after a landslide buried a hillside village in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 300 people under a tide of rock and mud.
Local people and emergency teams tried in vain to find victims trapped under the huge landslide that engulfed Aab Bareek in Badakhshan Province.
Officials said the final death toll could rise as high as 500 after Friday’s disaster, updating earlier information that 2,500 people were feared dead.
“Based on our reports, 300 houses are under the debris,” Badakhshan governor Shah Waliullah Adeeb said. “We have a list of about 300 confirmed dead.
“We can’t continue the search and rescue operation, as the houses are under several meters of mud. We will offer prayers for the victims and make the area a mass grave.”
Relief teams arrived at first light yesterday to be confronted by the huge scale of destruction and hundreds of families who had spent the night in the open.
“The first figure (of 2,500 feared dead) that we announced was obtained from local people, not from our technical team,” said Gul Mohammad Bedar, the deputy governor of Badakhshan.
“We think the death toll will not rise beyond 500.”
Many villagers were at Friday prayers in two mosques when they were entombed by the torrent of debris, and a second landslide hit people who had rushed to assist those in need.
“I have lost my sister, and my house was partially destroyed,” said villager Noor Mohammad, 45.
“We can’t get anyone out of the debris. We have lost hope of rescuing anyone.”
Gul Bibi, 50, cried as she sat in a tent with some female relatives.
“We were at home when the first landslide happened,” she said. “We left the house, but my husband and son went back inside, then the second one hit.
“We have not been able to find them.”
The landslide in the Argo district of Badakhshan left little evidence of the hundreds of homes it swept away at about midday after days of heavy rain.
“There is a very thick layer of mud. It is very difficult for people to take dead bodies out,” Sayed Abdullah Homayun Dehqan, provincial director of the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority, said at the site.
“They have only been able to find the body of a woman and a man. There is fear of another landslide. Our team has seen a crack in a nearby hill.
“We have started distributing food ... but we don’t have enough tents for the 700 families who spent the night outside. There are about 2,000 people — women, children, elders — without homes.”
President Hamid Karzai expressed his condolences and said immediate action was being taken to care for survivors.
“All the relevant UN agencies — together with the Afghan Red Crescent Society and NGO partners — are already on the ground,” the UN mission said.
The immediate focus is on about 700 displaced families, it said.
“Key needs for them are water, medical support, counselling support, food and emergency shelter.”
Badakhshan is a remote, mountainous province in northeast Afghanistan.
The landslides follow recent severe flooding in other parts of Afghanistan that left 150 people dead.
Flooding and landslides often occur in the spring rainy season in northern Afghanistan, where flimsy mud houses offer little protection against rising water levels and torrents of mud.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
