At least 10 people have died and more than 20 have been injured when a tanker truck caught fire in a high-altitude tunnel at the Salang Pass in Afghanistan’s Parwan province, Abdul Alim Afzali, head of the provincial disaster management department, said.
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Earlier it was reported about one dead and 34 injured. The tank truck was going from Baghlan to Kabul and caught fire inside the tunnel.
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“As a result of the accident in the Salang tunnel, 10 people died, more than 20 were injured,” Abdul Alim Afzali said.
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The road has already been cleared and it is open for traffic.
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The Salang tunnel is located at an altitude of over 3.2 thousand meters above sea level, in the region of the pass of the same name in the Hindu Kush mountains. The length of the tunnel, together with the exit galleries, is 3.6 kilometers, the width of the carriageway is 6 meters. The structure was built in 1958-1964 by Soviet specialists, mainly by Moscow metro builders. The tunnel is the only highway connecting Kabul with the northern provinces of Afghanistan. During the years of the civil war between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, the tunnel was blown up, and in 2002, after the unification of the country, it was reopened.
