ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Avalanches struck two villages in a remote part of northwest Pakistan, killing at least 29 people and leaving 14 others missing, police said Sunday.
Heavy rains and snow have been lashing Chitral, a rugged district near the border with Afghanistan, since late last week. In some areas, about two metres of snow has fallen over the past several days, Ijaz Ahmed, a senior police officer, said by telephone from the area.
"All the roads are blocked due to landslides. There is no access to the area,'' he said.
Bad weather blocked helicopter flights and authorities planned to send food, medicines and blankets by air on Monday.
One avalanche hit 18 homes in the village of Wasij late Saturday, killing 24 people whose bodies were recovered by neighbours and police, Ahmed said.
Six people were pulled alive from the rubble, three of them with injuries, he said. Fourteen people remained missing.
Five members of one family were killed when an avalanche hit their home in the village of Postaki, Ahmed said by telephone from the town of Chitral, 270 kilometres northwest of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
