ISLAMABAD– Heavy rains in eastern Afghanistan have killed at least 40 people and injured nearly 350 more, Taliban officials said Tuesday. Separately, at least 17 people died when a bus overturned on a main road, official media said.
Sharafat Zaman Amar, spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health, confirmed that 40 people had died in Monday’s storm and that 347 injured people had been taken for treatment to Nangarhar Regional Hospital from Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, and districts. nearby.
Among the dead were five members of the same family who died when the roof of their house collapsed in Surkh Rod district, according to provincial spokesperson Sediqullah Quraishi. Four other family members were injured.
Some 400 houses and 60 electricity poles were destroyed across Nangarhar province, Quraishi said. Power was cut in many areas and communications were limited in the city of Jalalabad, he said. Damage is still being assessed, Quraishi said.
Abdul Wali, 43, said much of the damage occurred within an hour. “The winds were so strong that they blew everything into the air. This was followed by heavy rain,” he said. His 4-year-old daughter suffered minor injuries, he said.
In May, exceptionally heavy rain delicate more than 300 people and destroyed thousands of homes, mainly in the northern province of Baghlan, according to the World Food Programme.
Separately, the Taliban’s official Bakhtar news agency reported that at least 17 people were killed and 34 others injured when a bus overturned Tuesday morning on the main road linking Kabul and Balkh in the northern province of Baghlan.
The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, but such incidents in the country are often blamed on poor road conditions and careless driving.
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