KANDAHAR : At least 20 people have died in floods and avalanches triggered by some of the heaviest rain and snow in Afghanistan for 50 years, an official said Monday.
At least six people died and 10 others were missing following heavy rains in the southern province of Kandahar since late Sunday, a provincial spokesman, Zalmai Ayoubi, told AFP.
"So far we have found six bodies from one car. Two cars with 10 other people in them are missing," he said.
"We don't know if they are dead or alive," he added.
Hundreds of mud-brick houses were damaged and about 1,000 animals killed in the province's Daman district, Ayoubi said.
He said dozens of people were stranded by flood waters caused by the heaviest rain seen in the area for half a century, as authorities called on Afghan and foreign troops to airlift people to safety.
The floods in Kandahar follow heavy snowfall in central and western parts of the country which has killed at least 14 people in the past week, according to disaster response authorities.
The heavy rain and snow comes after winter began without precipitation, sowing concerns about drought in the agrarian country over the coming year.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2010
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