Aid worker killed by falling rock

A huge rock loosened by rain and snow in Afghanistan tumbled onto an aid group’s vehicle, killing the Afghan driver and injuring three foreigners, officials said today, as freezing weather and disease left about 60 people dead throughout the country.

The rock crushed the vehicle after tumbling down a mountainside in the deep gorge that connects Kabul with eastern Nangarhar province, striking the vehicle near the village of Sufi Khel, said Abdul Hanan, an official with the Afghan Highway Police.

Mohammed Fariq Waqfi, head of the Co-ordination for Humanitarian Assistance, said the driver died at the scene. A Pakistani man suffered a broken arm while two Australian women were less seriously hurt, he said. All were brought to Kabul for treatment.

Afghans say this year’s snowfall is the heaviest in years, a boon for a country plagued by drought but a serious hazard in its mainly mountainous territory. Officials said more three feet of fresh snow was lying in many areas, cutting off villages and blocking passes.

The harsh weather is also preventing the recovery of bodies from an Afghan airliner which crashed into a mountain during a snowstorm last week, killing all 104 people on board.

In the heart of the Hindu Kush range, four people died in an avalanche near Bamiyan city on Tuesday, said Ghulam Saki, a police official.

In neighbouring Ghor province, about 30 people have died of a virulent lung infection blamed on the cold conditions, said Deputy Gov. Keramuddin Rezazada.

Further south, officials in Zabul and Uruzgan province said a total of 24 people, mainly children and the elderly, had died because of the cold.

Wazir Mohammed, the mayor of Shinkay district in Zabul, said blocked roads and scarce supplies meant wheat prices had more than tripled.

Mohammed said the cold had driven wolves down from the mountains and that a pack had attacked two men near a village in the district, injuring them seriously before a crowd drove them off.

The mayor of Sorie district said he heard that a man was killed by a wolf on Tuesday, but had no details.

Zabul’s deputy governor, Pir Mohammed, said he had appealed to Kabul and the US military to help.

“The people are in a terrible position. They didn’t expect this and didn’t stock up properly,” he said.