Official says Afghan avalanches kill at least 124 people

Avalanches caused by a heavy winter snow killed at least 124 people in northeastern Afghanistan, an emergency official said today, as rescuers clawed through debris with their hands to save those buried beneath.
The avalanches buried homes across four northeast provinces, killing those beneath, said Mohammad Aslam Syas, the deputy director of the Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority.
The province worst hit appeared to be Panjshir province, about 100 kilometers northeast of the capital, Kabul, where the avalanches destroyed or damaged around 100 homes, Syas said.
The acting governor of Panjshir, Abdul Rahman Kabiri, said rescuers used their bare hands and shovels in an effort to reach survivors.

Rescue teams had been dispatched to the affected areas and casualties were expected to rise, Syas said.
The heavy snowstorms, which began early yesterday, hampered rescue efforts. Snow fall from the storm was nearly 3-feet deep in places and fallen trees blocked roads in the Panjshir Valley.

Gen Abdul Aziz Ghirat, the provincial police chief of Panjshir, said the death toll from the avalanches was expected to rise when rescue attempts resumed at sunrise tomorrow.
Avalanches in the valley's Dara district affected up to 600 families, according to people trying to reach the area to assist in rescue efforts.
"People there have told me that two of my relatives have been killed and eight others are still under the snow," said an Afghan who goes by the single name Sharafudin.

"My son and I are trying to get through to see if we can help find their bodies. But it will take us at least three or four hours to get there because of the snow and the road is very narrow, so we have to walk, the car can't get through."
He spoke at the mouth of the valley, where traffic moved at a crawl.
"We've had no help yet from the authorities, no medicines, no machinery to open the roads so we can get to the buried houses," Sharafudin said.
Another man stuck on the highway trying to reach Dara told The Associated Press that many bodies remained in houses buried beneath feet of snow.

"We are so concerned about our relatives who are just stuck there," said the man named Abu Muslim.
Large parts of Afghanistan have been covered in snow as a major storm interrupted an otherwise mild and dry winter.