At least 16 people died in an avalanche that swept across a road linking Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe with the north of the Central Asian state, the interior ministry told AFP.

A ministry spokesman said "rescue work is continuing and we don't know how many vehicles and people could still be under the many metres thick avalanche".

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"The dead are drivers of heavy cargo vehicles and their passengers, who ignored warnings from the traffic police about the danger of avalanches and risked their lives trying to cross a dangerous sector," the spokesman said.

First an avalanche trapped the trucks, which were carrying agricultural products, then another buried the vehicles, officials said.

Tajikistan is an impoverished ex-Soviet republic that borders Afghanistan and has mountains across more than 90 percent of its territory.