An oil tanker overturned and caught fire in Afghanistan‘s high-altitude Salang Pass, killing 12 people and injuring dozens, officials said Sunday. The incident happened late Saturday in Parwan province, north of Kabul, leaving passengers on both sides of the mountain pass stranded.
At least 12 people were killed and 37 others injured in the incident, Public Works Ministry spokesman Hamidullah Misbah said, adding that the death toll was expected to rise. “The oil tanker overturned and caught fire in the Salang tunnel, which subsequently set fire to several other vehicles,” Misbah said.
Abdullah Afghan Mal, a senior health official in Parwan, said the many dead included women and children who were badly burned. “Among the dead, it was very difficult to identify who was male and who was female,” he said.
The pass was now closed to traffic as rescue teams in helicopters were deployed to the scene, officials said. Salang Pass, one of the world’s highest mountain highways at around 3,650 meters (12,000 ft), was built by Soviet-era specialists in the 1950s and includes a 2.6 kilometer tunnel.
The pass passes through the Hindu Kush mountain range, which connects the capital Kabul to the north. Hailed as an engineering feat upon completion, the Salang Pass is often closed for several days due to accidents, heavy snowfall and avalanches during the winter. In 2010, avalanches in the Salang Pass killed more than 150 people.
