An oil tanker overturned and caught hearth in Afghanistan’s high-altitude Salang go, killing 12 folks and injuring dozens, officers mentioned on Sunday.
The incident occurred late on Saturday within the province of Parwan, north of Kabul, leaving travellers on either side of the mountainous go stranded.
A minimum of 12 folks had been killed and 37 others had been injured within the incident, mentioned Hamidullah Misbah, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Works, including the toll was anticipated to rise.
“An oil tanker overturned and caught hearth within the Salang tunnel, which then set a number of different autos on hearth,” Misbah advised AFP.
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Abdullah Afghan Mal, a senior well being official in Parwan, mentioned most of the useless included ladies and youngsters who had been badly burned.
“Among the many useless it was very onerous to establish who was a male and who was a feminine,” he mentioned.
The go was now closed for visitors as rescue groups in helicopters deployed on the website, officers mentioned.
The Salang go, one of many highest mountain highways on the earth at round 3,650 metres (12,000 toes) was constructed by Soviet-era specialists within the 50s and features a 2.6-kilometre tunnel.
The go runs by way of the Hindu Kush mountain vary that connects capital Kabul to the north.
Hailed as an engineering feat upon completion, the Salang go is usually shut for days due to accidents, heavy snowfalls and avalanches through the winter.
In 2010, avalanches killed greater than 150 folks within the Salang go.