A heavy snowfall that there has been in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) since Monday has caused a series of avalanches in the area.

Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, cited the Emergencies Committee under the Government of Tajikistan as saying that an avalanche that hit Nosisir-Khusrav Street in GBAO’s capital, Khorog, Wednesday morning at around 10:00 am buried ten houses and the building the Afghan Consulate.    

Seven people, including a 5-year-old child, have been pulled from the snow.  Two persons were reportedly killed in the avalanche, according to Radio Ozodi.

Search-and-rescue operation  is under way.

The avalanche reportedly destroyed the power transmission line in Khorog and the city has been left without electricity.  

On February 14, an avalanche that occurred on the 8th kilometer of the road Khorog and Roshtqala, near the village of Shod,  district buried a minibus with ten passengers aboard, according to the Emergencies Committee.   The passengers reportedly survived but sustained various injuries and were taken to a hospital.   

Radio Ozodi says that about ten avalanches have occurred in the region over the past two days alone.