Flash floods kill at least 65 in Afghanistan
Posted: 01 August 2010 0017 hrs

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KABUL : Flash floods in Afghanistan have killed at least 65 people and affected more than 1,000 families, the national disaster authority chief told AFP Saturday.

Rescue teams in the northeast of the country are still struggling to reach areas cut off by flooded roads and the threat of insurgent attacks, said Abdul Matin Edrok, head of the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority.

"Initial information sent by our provincial offices shows that nearly 70 people have been killed and tens injured. We estimate more than 1,000 families have been affected but these figures may rise," he said.

Most of those affected were in northeast Kapisa province, where 31 people died, he said. Others were killed in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar and Logar, central Ghazni province and northern Parwan.

Edrok said food and medical aid was being distributed using some Afghan and NATO coalition helicopters, and that the rains causing the floods had now ended.

In neighbouring Pakistan, at least 408 people have been killed and 600,000 people affected by the worst floods in living memory, as monsoon rains triggered flash floods and landslides.

Military operations are under way to help those living across the Afghan border in the impoverished remote mountain belt. - AFP/fa