Tajikistan mudslides kill 13, many missing: official

DUSHANBE: Mudslides in Tajikistan killed at least 13 people and left scores missing Friday as heavy downpours hit a remote region of the impoverished Central Asian State, an emergency official said.

The landslide destroyed 200 homes in the mountain village of Kilyab, some 220 kilometres (130 miles) south-east of the capital Dushanbe, emergency services spokesman Distmurod Zabirov told a foreign news agency.

“Dozens of people are missing, mainly women and children who were mostly likely swept away by the mass of mud while they were sleeping” in the early hours of Friday, he said.

River water later flooded lower parts of the stricken region, adding to the danger facing rescue workers, Zabirov added.

Mudslides strike every spring in the mountainous ex-Soviet states, with 19 people killed by landslides already this year.