At least two people were killed and eight injured shortly before dawn on Tuesday in a landslide that buried dozens of trucks waiting to cross a border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, it was said. learned from the emergency services.
Rescuers fear that other people, dead or still alive, are trapped under the rubble. Detection dogs have been deployed to the scene, while rescuers carefully use large clearing machines to move the debris.
Nearly 120 trucks were preparing to cross the Torkham border post, the main crossing and trade point between the two countries, when the landslide occurred.
“We found two bodies and took eight injured people to hospital,” Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Rescue 1122 emergency service, told AFP.
It’s hard to say, he said, how many people may still be trapped under the rubble, but survivors said they received phone calls from missing colleagues.
“They are no longer receiving calls… Maybe the phone batteries of those trapped inside are dead, or maybe there is another reason,” Mr. Faizi.
Small blazes erupted after the disaster as drivers and their assistants prepared meals on gas stoves before daybreak in the fasting month of Ramadan.
“The fire is now under control. The rescue operation is continuing, with the help of diggers and heavy machinery,” Faizi added.
The cause of the rockslide was not immediately known. A local administrative official, Ali Raza, noted that heavy machinery had been used for months for expansion works in the hills surrounding the border post.
Torrential rain overnight may also have contributed to the landslide, he said.
The authorities have temporarily closed the border post to road traffic, but it remains open to pedestrians, according to the same source.
18/04/2023 11:55:00 – Landi City (Pakistan) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
