Flash Floods Kill More Than 300 People In Northern Afghanistan After Heavy Rains, UN Says

Videos posted on social media showed dozens of people gathered Saturday behind the hospital in the province of Baghlan looking for their loved ones.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Flash floods from unusually heavy seasonal rains in Afghanistan have killed more than 300 people and destroyed over 1,000 houses, the U.N. food agency said Saturday.

The World Food Program said it was distributing fortified biscuits to the survivors of one of the many floods that hit Afghanistan over the last few weeks, mostly the northern province of Baghlan, which bore the brunt of the deluges Friday.

In neighboring Takhar province, state-owned media outlets reported the floods killed at least 20 people.

Videos posted on social media showed dozens of people gathered Saturday behind the hospital in Baghlan looking for their loved ones. An official tells them that they should start digging graves while their staff are busy preparing bodies for burial.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for the Taliban government, posted on the social media platform X that “hundreds ... have succumbed to these calamitous floods, while a substantial number have sustained injuries.”