Hundreds Feared Dead in Afghan Landslide

Heavy rains caused a hill to collapse on the village of Hobo Barik on Friday, Badakshan province Governor Shah Waliullah Adeeb said.

Al Jazeera's Abdullah Shahood, reporting from Kabul, described the situation as very grim, with at least 250 homes buried under 60 metres of rubble and rescue teams unable to reach them.

He said: "The landslide brought the entire village under rubble. It is hard to say how many people are trapped but government officials are estimating those numbers can be up to 2000 people."

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has been helping families to recover from the flash flooding of the past few weeks. Matthew Graydon, from the IOM, said: "This is a relatively remote area but the scale of this landslide is devastating. Our team has just returned and [according to initial assessments] as many as 2,700 people have died."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai released a statement saying he was deeply saddened by the situation and has ordered the Disaster Management Authority to deal with the situation and deliver aid.

Aid is on its way, but the remote village is difficult to reach and the heavy machinery needed to dig those trapped is not easily transported.

Rescue crews are working but do not have enough equipment, Governor Adeep said, appealing for more shovels to dig people out. "It's physically impossible right now. We don't have enough shovels, we need more machinery."

Badakhshan provincial police chief, Major General Faziluddin Hayar, said rescuers pulled seven survivors and three bodies from the mounds of mud and earth but held out little hope that more survivors would be found.