More than 100 killed as avalanches strike Afghanistan

The death toll from a string of avalanches in Afghanistan today soared to more than 100.

Omer Mohammadi, spokesman for the Afghan state minister for disaster management and humanitarian affairs, said avalanches had claimed at least 107 lives, injuring more than 65 others and destroying over 150 homes.

Many of the newest fatalities come from Nuristan province, near the Pakistani border, where two villages were buried in snow.

Mr Mohammadi said rescue teams have so far recovered 48 bodies from those villages.

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 inside cars trapped by the snow.