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Avalanche kills 16 on Tajik road Avalanche kills 15 on Tajik road
(10 minutes later)
An avalanche on a road linking the Tajik capital Dushanbe with the country's second city Khudzhand has killed 16 people, police say. An avalanche on a road linking the Tajik capital Dushanbe with the country's second city Khudzhand has killed at least 15 people, police say.
It occurred late on Friday evening 67km (42 miles) to the north of Dushanbe, a mountainous republic in ex-Soviet Central Asia.It occurred late on Friday evening 67km (42 miles) to the north of Dushanbe, a mountainous republic in ex-Soviet Central Asia.
Police were alerted by one driver using a mobile phone, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reports. Dozens of cars are still buried under snow, as another avalanche crashed onto lorries that had stopped on the road.
Communication with the vehicle was lost "at once". Avalanches are very common along the route that links Tajikistan with China.
Police say that one of the drivers managed to make a phone call from his mobile but after that all communication was lost.
There have been heavy snow storms all across this part of Central Asia and one driver who recently came back from the border with China said the road had become exceptionally dangerous, the BBC's Central Asia correspondent Natalia Antelava reports.
But much of the economy of this impoverished region relies on trade with China, and so many drivers say they have no choice but to take the risk.