Search for survivors abandoned

Rescue teams abandoned the search for survivors on Saturday, a day after the landslide swamped the Hobo Barak village in Badakhshan province.

Figures on the number of people killed or still missing varied, with estimates ranging from 250 to as many as 2,700.

Badakhshan governor Shah Waliullah Adeeb said at least 300 houses had been wiped out and 300 people confirmed dead.

"We cannot continue the search and rescue operation anymore, as the houses are under meters (feet) of mud. We will offer prayers for the victims and make the area a mass grave," he said.

Hundreds of volunteers and emergency services had arrived at first light on Saturday to dig through the earth and mud to find the bodies of loved ones, but their efforts proved fruitless.

Relief efforts under way

The disaster was the result of two separate landslides, triggered by heavy rain. The first and smaller one covered a few houses. Those who came to the rescue were then swamped by a second, larger one.

The UN mission in Afghanistan said the focus was now on the thousands of people displaced by the disaster.

"All the relevant UN agencies - together with the Afghan Red Crescent Society and NGO partners - are already on the ground," said the UN mission in Afghanistan.

However aid workers have struggled to reach the remote area where there is little infrastructure and roads cannot take heavy machinery.

Fear of third landslide

Provincial director of the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority, Sayed Abdullah Homayun Dehqan said operations have also been hampered by concerns over the possibility of a third landslide.

"There is fear of another landslide. Our assessment teams have seen a crack in a nearby hill," he said.

"We have started distributing food...but we don't have enough tents for all the 700 families who spent the night outside. There are around 2,000 people - women, children, elders - without homes."

Those not given tents were forced to camp out overnight in freezing conditions, while dozens were being treated for injuries.

US President Barack Obama said American forces were on standby to help. At least 30,000 US soldiers remain in the country, but the number is falling as international military forces wind down their operations in anticipation of withdrawing almost all troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

Badakhshan province - which lies roughly 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of Kabul - is one of Afghanistan's most remote areas and shares a border with Tajikistan, China and Pakistan.

ccp/jm (AP, AFP, Reuters)