JALALABAD (PAN): Flash floods and torrential rains have killed 13 people and destroyed several houses in Alingar district of the eastern Laghman province, residents and officials said on Thursday.

Haji Noor Agha, a tribal elder from Alingar, told Pajhwok Afghan News the downpour lashed the district Wednesday night. The floods that followed washed away several houses and villages, he informed.

According to the elder, a house owned by Mullah Akbar Khan in Sandarwa village was swept away by the flooding that drowned 11 people, including a woman and a family guest. Bodies of seven of them were recovered while the rest were being searched, Agha added.

Malak Najmuddin of the same village said the floods also caused heavy damage to civilian population in Lokar, Adar and Baba Kala areas besides washing away a mosque in Waranta. He said hundreds of acres of farm land were also damaged.

Said Ahmad Sapi, spokesman for the Laghman governor, told this news agency the floods caused 11 deaths in Sandarwa village and two more in Sao. Three more people were injured in the areas, he added.

Sapi said over 100 acres of agricultural land was damaged. Heavy rains followed by floods also caused large-scale damage in the neighbouring province of Nangarhar last week. Seven people were killed and the same number injured.

By the same token, human and material losses were caused by recent rains and floods in the southeastern provinces of Khost and Paktia and central Kapisa.

dk/mud