Heavy snow and avalanches have killed more than 106 people and injured dozens in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Multiple avlanches have claimed around 100 lives in Pakistan and Northern part of Afghanistan. Authorities have warned local residents of more avalanches likely to come as abnormally heavy snowfall continues.
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 reportedly killed in an avalanche in northern Pakistan, nine of them in a northern town of district Chitral.
After snowstorms have been ravaging the northern regions for a week, a lot of snow amassed in the mountains started to come down, wiping out entire villages.
“Avalanches have buried two entire villages,” a spokesman for the Afghan Natural Disaster Ministry told AFP. The deadliest incident so far has occurred in the northeastern Afghan province of Nuristan, where at least 50 people have died in a mountain village.
“Based on information from district officials, 50 dead bodies have been recovered and the number may increase,” Reuters quoted provincial governor Hafiz Abdul Qayum as saying.
Neighboring province of Badakhshan has also been hit hard by the weather, which killed at least 19 people over the past two days. At least 12 districts in Badakhshan have been completely cut off.
Dozens of houses have been destroyed and people were reported to have frozen to death, trapped in cars.
At least 13 people have reportedly been killed across the border in northern Pakistan. A number of people are believed trapped under the snow and the death toll might rise.
Northern part of Pakistan especially Chitral is renowned place for tourism, according to the reports number of tourists are trapped due to road blockage from continuous snowfall. Government has directed authorities to rescue the trapped people in affected areas.