ABI BARIK, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan rescuers and hundreds of volunteers armed with shovels and little more than their bare hands dug through earth and mud Saturday looking for survivors or bodies of loved ones killed by a massive landslide in the remote northeast.
Figures on the number of people killed and missing in the disaster Friday varied from 255 to 2,700 as officials tried to gather precise information. Fears of a new landslide complicated rescue efforts, and with homes and residents buried under meters (yards) of mud, officials said the earth from the landslide likely would be their final resting place.
"That will be their cemetery," said Mohammad Karim Khalili, one of the country's two vice presidents, who visited the scene Saturday. "It is not possible to bring out any bodies."
Though figures on the death toll varied, residents knew the toll the tragedy had taken on their own families.
From atop a muddy hill, Begam Nesar pointed to the torrent of earth below that had wiped out much of her village. "Thirteen of my family members are under the mud," she said, including her mother, father, brothers, sisters and children. She said she had been visiting relatives at a nearby village when the disaster struck.
The United Nations said Friday at least 350 people died, and the provincial governor said as many as 2,000 people were feared missing. On Saturday, the International Organization of Migration said information they gathered from provincial figures and local community leaders indicated that 2,700 people were dead or missing.
