At Least '50 Killed' In Afghan Flood

 

Flash flooding in the remote northern Afghan province of Baghlan has killed at least 50 people and forced thousands to abandon their homes, officials say.

The flooding has been deadliest in the Guzargah-e-Nur district of the province 140km (87 miles) north of the provincial capital Puli Khumri.
Police say the dead include women and children and many are still missing.
Dozens of people have been killed in floods that have swept across northern Afghanistan in recent weeks.
Thousands of houses have been destroyed and tens of thousands of people have been affected.
'Overwhelmed' The authorities in Guzargah-e-Nur - an especially inaccessible area of Baghlan - have appealed to the central government to provide emergency assistance.

Landslides after heavy rainfall in Badakhshan province in early May killed hundreds of people

Northern Afghanistan has been hit by flooding for much of this year

"So far no one has come to help us. People are trying to find their missing family members," Guzargah-e-Nur police chief Fazel Rahman Rahman was quoted by the AP news agency as saying.
He said that his officers had been overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.
The defence ministry says that two army helicopters have been deployed to provide assistance.
The Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority says that it has stockpiles of food and other supplies in Baghlan province, and has begun transporting them to the affected area.
Last month flood waters washed away a big section of the main north-south road in the Tashqorghan gorge, effectively cutting off the north of the country.
Further north-east in Badakhshan province, hundreds of people were killed in early May by a landslide which engulfed some 300 houses.
Source:bbc.co.uk