Afghanistan: Many killed as oil truck catches fire

An oil tanker overturned and caught fire in a mountainous tunnel in Afghanistan killing at least 19 people and injuring over 30, officials said Sunday.

What we know so far

The accident took place on the mountainous Salang pass at around 8.30 p. m. local time (1530 GMT) on Saturday.

Officials said the tanker exploded after rolling over and the subsequent fire set several other vehicles ablaze.

Many of the causalities suffered intense burns.

"Among the dead, it was very hard to identify who was a male and who was a female," said Abdullah Afghan Mal, a senior health official in Parwan.

Hekmatullah Shamim, the spokesman for the governor of Parwan, told reporters that 32 people were injured.

The crash left both sides of the mountainous pass blocked.

The Ministry of Public Works said the blaze had been extinguished by Sunday but the tunnel was still closed to traffic.

It was not immediately clear what caused the vehicle to overturn.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said the country sent its "deepest condolences to the families of the victims and ... it also calls on all relevant agencies to make more and serious efforts to prevent the recurrence of such terrible incidents."

What is the Salang pass?

One of the highest mountain highways in the world at around 3,650 meters (12,000 feet), the Salang pass was built by Soviet-era specialists in the 1960s and includes a 2.6-kilometer (1.6-mile) tunnel.

The tunnel is located about 90 kilometers north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The pass runs through the Hindu Kush mountain range that connects the capital to the north of the country.

Salang is often shut for days because of accidents, heavy snowfalls and avalanches during the winter.

In 2010, more than 150 people died when avalanches struck the pass.

mm/dj (AP, AFP, dpa)