An avalanche in Pakistan and snowstorms in neighboring Afghanistan kill at least 20 people

This is a locator map for Pakistan with its capital, Islamabad, and the Kashmir region. (AP Photo)

ISLAMABAD — An avalanche killed nine members of a single family in northwestern Pakistan on Friday while a heavy snowstorm the day before in neighboring Afghanistan left 11 people dead, officials said. Winter storms also stranded thousands of tourists and blocked roads near Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

In Pakistan, workers for the country’s emergency services struggled for hours before they pulled all nine bodies, including four women, from under the snow in the district of Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, according to Bilal Faizi, a spokesperson.

Separately, the season’s first heavy snowfall blocked multiple roads leading to Murree, a hill station about 60 kilometres (37 miles) northeast of Islamabad. Authorities said rescue teams were working to clear snow and get to the stranded tourists.

Islamabad’s district administration advised people to avoid going to Murree and said all the roads in the area have been closed to travelers to facilitate the evacuation of those already stranded.

Hundreds of vehicles were caught in massive traffic jams on the outskirts of Islamabad, where many refused to turn back despite warnings. Some travelers argued with police and insisted on continuing toward Murree, officials said, even as authorities said dozens of vehicles parked outside hotels in the area had been buried under heavy snowfall.

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif in Punjab province, where Muree is located, said heavy machinery was being used to clear the snow and assist the tourists in Murree.

Pakistan imposed stricter winter emergency measures in Murree and elsewhere in the country’s north after at least 22 Pakistani tourists died in January 2022, mostly from hypothermia, after getting stuck in their cars during a severe snowstorm as temperatures plummeted.

Meanwhile, spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Hammad of Afghanistan’s disaster management agency said freezing rain and snow killed 11 people in six provinces, cut off roads and left towns and villages isolated across the country.

Heavy snowfall also blocked roads linking provincial capitals to villages in four provinces, as well as the Salang Pass, a high-altitude crossing in the Hindu Kush mountain range that links the capital of Kabul with Afghanistan’s northern provinces.

The disaster management agency said local officials had been tasked with using “all their resources to urgently reach affected people and provide food and non-food assistance.” In February 2025, heavy snowfall and rain killed 36 people in different parts of Afghanistan.

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Associated Press writer Abdul Qahar Afghan in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

Munir Ahmed, The Associated Press