SALON

Wednesday, Jun 13, 2012 10:15 AM UTC

Bulldozers dig for victims of Afghan earthquakes

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Bulldozers dig for victims of Afghan earthquakesA crane is used to search for victims of Monday's earthquake in Baghlan, north of Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. Scores of people are feared entombed under tons of rock and stone that buried a village in a landslide after two earthquakes in northern Afghanistan, authorities said Tuesday. A single bulldozer worked to uncover the bodies of those killed in Monday's landslide after the earthquakes struck the Hindu Kush region, but villagers fear there will be no survivors. (AP Photo/Jawed Dehsabzi)(Credit: AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Bulldozers dug through tons of rocks and dirt on Wednesday in hopes of recovering 71 victims of a landslide that occurred after two earthquakes struck in northern Afghanistan earlier this week.

Two bodies have been recovered so far and 69 other people are feared dead — entombed in the rubble in Baghlan province’s Burka district, Mahmood Haqmal, the spokesman for the province, said Wednesday.

Wielding shovels, nearby villagers and Afghan policemen dug into the dirt alongside three bulldozers as they uncovered beams of houses crushed under the weight of the landslide.

“We have to dig and find the 69 other bodies,” Haqmal said. “I do not know how long it will take. It is not an easy task, but the government has promised that they will not leave the bodies under the rocks … they will stay until they find the last bodies.”

The U.S. Geological Survey said one earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 struck the region on Monday morning, followed by a magnitude 5.7 quake. Both caused buildings to shake in the Afghan capital, Kabul, 190 kilometers (120 miles) to the south.

Damage was reported in five areas of the province, but the worst was in the village of Sayi Hazara. The village, which is home to about 20 families, was buried under an estimated 30 meters (yards) of rocks and dirt, according to the governor of the province, Gov. Abdul Majid, who reached the area on Tuesday afternoon after a four-hour drive from the provincial capital of Pul-e-Khumri.

One Monday, local officials feared that as many as 100 people could have been killed. On Tuesday, officials in Baghlan revised the number to 50 or fewer, but after a few survivors from the village were interviewed, they now believe 71 people are feared dead.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Wednesday that non-governmental agencies, Afghan government offices, the U.N. and the Afghan Red Crescent Society have sent tents, blankets, water, bulldozers, hand tools, food, ambulances and other aid to the site.

More Rahim Faiez.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations