Flood-hit areas still inaccessible

Emergency aid and rescue teams yesterday struggled to reach areas of northern Afghanistan hardest hit by flash floods that killed hundreds, AFP journalists saw. 

Heavy rains caused flash flooding in several provinces in Afghanistan on Friday.

Northern Baghlan was the worst impacted, with efforts to deliver aid hampered by destruction to roads and bridges wrought when the floods ripped through the province.

In Sheikh Jalal, about a two-hour drive from Burka, one of the most devastated areas, AFP journalists saw aid trucks full of food, military vehicles, rescue workers and local residents stuck where roads had been completely washed out. The military was using heavy machinery to pave the way, as well as to free aid trucks stuck in the mud.

The Taliban government refugees ministry said on Sunday that 315 people had been killed and more than 1,600 people were injured in the flooding in Baghlan.

More than 2,600 homes have been damaged or destroyed and 1,000 cattle killed, it added.