Up to 20 people may have died from asphyxiation or hypothermia after an avalanche near the entrance to Afghanistan's Salang Tunnel, it was reported today.
Shocked travellers who had survived last night in a blizzard in freezing temperatures said they had seen or heard reports of up to 20 deaths.
"I saw one boy of around 10 years old who had frozen to death," said one truck driver around five kilometres from the tunnel entrance.
Witnesses and aid workers said about 60 cars had been stuck in the tunnel after an avalanche near the southern entrance and that three people died of asphyxiation from the exhaust fumes of cars, kept running to keep occupants warm.
The Soviet-built Salang Tunnel, the world's highest-altitude tunnel at 3,363 metres, was reopened last month after being badly damaged in Afghanistan's civil war.