Al Jazeera: At least 25 people have been killed by snowstorms and avalanches in northern Afghanistan, more than a week after more than 100 people died due to heavy snowfall across the country, according to an official. Northern Faryab province bore the brunt of freezing temperatures and heavy snow on Sunday. Click here to read more (external link). </s> At least 25 people have been killed by snowstorms and avalanches in northern Afghanistan, more than a week after more than 100 people died due to heavy snowfall across the country, according to an official.

Northern Faryab province bore the brunt of freezing temperatures and heavy snow on Sunday.

Ammanullah Zafar, director for security in Faryab, told Anadolu news agency that Kohistan district was the worst hit.

"We can confirm that 25 people have died in this unprecedented heavy snow," he said.

READ MORE: Scores dead in heavy snowfall in Afghanistan, Pakistan

Zafar said police along with National Disasters Management Authority teams were trying hard with their limited resources to save the lives of several residents in the area, particularly the stranded passengers on the inter-district highways and the people stuck up in the mountains.

"We have received reports about people missing from Pashtoonkot, Andkhoy, Qurmkul, Balcheragh and Dawlat Abad districts; efforts are under way to locate and rescue people," Zafar said.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans, particularly the internally displaced persons and the recently repatriated refugees from Pakistan, remain vulnerable to the harsh winter in the country that relies heavily on aid.

On February 6, Afghanistan's northeastern Nuristan province was hit hardest by heavy snowfall and avalanches that wreaked havoc and claimed about 106 lives in the region, officials said.

Dozens of houses were destroyed and some of the victims had reportedly frozen to death.

"Avalanches have buried two entire villages," a spokesperson for the ministry of state natural disasters told the AFP news agency of the Barg Matal area in Nuristan.

At least 13 people were also killed by the disasters in the Pakistani town of Chitral.

Neighbouring Pakistan has seen a lesser death toll. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan official says at least 107 people have been killed in recent days by avalanches caused by heavy snow in different parts of the country, nearly doubling an earlier death toll estimate of 54.

Omer Mohammadi, spokesman for the Afghan state minister for disaster management and humanitarian affairs, said Monday that more than 65 others have been injured and more than 150 homes destroyed by the avalanches.

Many of the newest fatalities come from Nuristan province, near the Pakistani border, where two villages were buried in snow. Mohammadi said that rescue teams have so far recovered 48 bodies from those villages. </s> Heavy snow and avalanches have killed more than 106 people and injured dozens in Afghanistan.

In the deadliest incident, 53 people died in one village after an avalanche in Nuristan, a North-Eastern Afghan province on the Pakistan border.

Thirteen people were also killed in an avalanche in Northern Pakistan, nine of them in the town of Chitral.

Dozens of houses have been destroyed and people were reported to have frozen to death, trapped in cars.

Afghanistan’s minister of State Natural Disasters, Wais Ahmad Barmak, confirmed the number of dead to BBC Afghan. There were also avalanches to the North of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

“Avalanches have buried two entire villages,” a spokesman for the ministry said.

The neighbouring mountainous province of Badakhshan was also badly hit by snow storms.

Rescuers are experiencing difficulty reaching trapped people because of bad weather and snow-blocked roads.

Provincial Council member Khalilullah Ghayor told BBC Afghan that two helicopters will be deployed to the area to look for survivors and deliver aid.

The main international airport in Kabul has also been closed due to snow and ice on the runway.

On the Kabul-Kandahar highway, police and soldiers rescued some 250 vehicles that were trapped.

At least two stranded drivers have frozen to death while dozens are marooned there without food.

Officials are warning of more avalanches as snow storms are continuing. </s> Afghan men climb up a snow covered hillside as youths play on the frozen surface of Qargha Lake on the outskirts of Kabul on February 10, 2017. Twenty-five people were killed by snowstorms and avalanches in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, just days after more than 100 people died due to heavy snowfall across the country, according to an official.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Al Bawaba. </s> Nearly 100 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan over the weekend as a result of heavy snow and resultant avalanches, collapsed buildings, and road accidents. Government offices and the international airport have closed in the capital city of Kabul and at least 12 districts have been rendered inaccessible by snow accumulation on the roads.

An estimated 250 vehicles are trapped in the snow on one highway alone, and the dangerous conditions have limited rescue efforts. "There is no way to rush the injured persons to [the] hospital because all roads in the valley have been blocked due to heavy snowfall," said an official of the Chitral district of Pakistan.

Snow storms are continuing Sunday and more avalanches are anticipated. Bonnie Kristian </s> Afghan official: Avalanches in Afghanistan kill at least 107

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan official says at least 107 people have been killed in recent days by avalanches caused by heavy snow in different parts of the country, nearly doubling an earlier death toll estimate of 54.

Omer Mohammadi, spokesman for the Afghan state minister for disaster management and humanitarian affairs, said Monday that more than 65 others have been injured and more than 150 homes destroyed by the avalanches.

Many of the newest fatalities come from Nuristan province, near the Pakistani border, where two villages were buried in snow. Mohammadi said that rescue teams have so far recovered 48 bodies from those villages. </s> At least 84 reported dead in avalanches, house collapses across eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan.

Scores of people have been killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by heavy snow and avalanches that hit mountainous areas in the region, officials said.

In eastern Afghanistan, at least 50 people were killed and dozens more remain missing after an avalanche buried a village in Nuristan province, provincial governor Hafiz Abdul Qayum said, leaving many homeless.

"Most affected are women and children," he said, adding that many houses collapsed, killing at least five people and leaving many families without shelter.

"The area is completely blocked because of snow so it is very difficult for us to send support, but we are trying our best."

Qayum said local rescue operations continued at the site, adding the death toll might increase.

In the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, at least 19 people were killed and 17 injured in avalanches, collapsed roofs and road accidents over the last two days, Naweed Frotan, a government spokesperson, said.

The government was still struggling to reach at least 12 districts in Badakhshan province that had been completely cut off, Qayum said.

Heavy snow also blanketed the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, forcing government offices to close across the city.

In neighbouring Pakistan, at least nine people, including at least three children, were killed early on Sunday morning when an avalanche in the northwestern Chitral district destroyed 22 houses, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in a statement.

Three people were injured in avalanche, with one in critical condition, the statement said.

"Rescue operations at the site have finished for now," Gul Hammad Farooqi, a local journalist in Chitral, said.

"They were carried out by the local population, because no one was able to reach the site, even by helicopter."

No more residents of the village were currently being reported missing, Farooqi said, citing senior local officials.

Roads to the remote Shershal village, where the avalanche occurred, remained blocked due to the snowfall, and rescue crews were forced to rush to the surrounding areas by helicopter, the NDMA said.

In a separate incident in the Chitral region, a paramilitary soldier was killed and six others were injured when their post collapsed under an avalanche in the Pisotan area, Pakistan's military said in a statement.

The surviving soldiers had been rescued, the statement said.

Parts of the Chitral valley received more than five feet of snow in the previous 24 hours, Pakistan’s Meteorological Department said in a statement on Sunday, with scattered snowfall forecast for Monday.

The snow wreaked havoc on major roads in Afghanistan, including the main Kabul-Kandahar highway, where police and soldiers rescued passengers in about 250 vehicles trapped by the storm, said Jawed Salangi, a spokesman for Ghazni province.

The Salang pass, north of Kabul, was also closed under as much as two and a half metres of snow, officials said.

In Pakistan, all inter-district roads in Chitral were closed, while a major highway linking Chitral to the Dir district, and another linking parts of the upper Swat valley were only open to traffic under restrictions, NDMA said.
At least 25 people are killed by snowstorms and avalanches in northern Afghanistan as heavy snow continues to hit the country.