Avalanches have killed at least 29 people in Afghanistan’s mountainous north east as rescuers struggled to reach the worst-hit areas cut off by heavy snow.

At least 14 people have been killed in avalanches caused by heavy snow in a mountainous region of north-eastern Afghanistan, officials said today.

Up 44 people are missing after a passenger plane crashed in a remote area of Afghanistan today.

HELICOPTERS ferried rescuers to and bodies away from the site of a massive avalanche that blocked an important mountain pass 115km north of Kabul as the death toll soared yesterday to 166, officials said.