KABUL, January 17 (RIA Novosti) - A total of 16 children have frozen to death in Afghanistan's western province of Herat in the past 24 hours, a spokesman for a regional emergency team said on Thursday.
Over 80 children and elderly people are currently blocked in by snowdrifts in another village in the mountainous province, which has been almost completely isolated from other parts of the country by heavy snowfalls.
Residents of the Herat province, stricken with hunger and cold, have been supplied with 30 tons of food and warm blankets by officers from Afghan Corps 207, the military men battling through heavy snow to reach the frozen villages.
Four people have died of cold and hunger in the neighboring Farah province.
Afghan authorities still do not know the exact death toll, but preliminary estimations say that snowfalls and freezing weather have killed over 300 people across the country in recent days.
