Villagers prepare to search for survivors of a landslide in the Argo district of Badakhshan, Afghanistan which has trapped more than 2,000 people
* Three bodies pulled out of rubble with 100 more being treated for injuries
* More than 2,000 people are still missing after hill collapsed on Hobo Barik
* Landslide buried some 300 homes in area - about third of all houses there
Up to 500 people are feared dead after a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a remote village in northeastern Afghanistan today.
Three bodies have been pulled out of the rubble in the Argo district already - with at least 100 more being treated for injuries, according to police.
Badakshan province Gov. Shah Waliullah Adeeb said earlier more than 2,000 people were missing after a hill collapsed on the village of Hobo Barik.
Wiped out: Hobo Barik, a village in Badakshan province, was hit by heavy rains, almost certainly killing 500 people
Survivors of the disaster make their way from the village hit by the landslide which is feared to have claimed hundreds of lives
'There were more than 1,000 families living in that village. A total of 2,100 people - men, women and children - are trapped," Naweed Forotan, a spokesman for the governor, told Reuters.
Gov. Adeeb said rescue crews were working but didn't have enough equipment, appealing for shovels.
'It's physically impossible right now,' Adeeb said. 'We don't have enough shovels; we need more machinery.'
He said authorities evacuated a nearby village over concerns about further landslides.
Police later said that up to 500 are believed to have been killed - with three bodies recovered already.
'At least 400 to 500 people are still under a huge landslide, and they are all believed to be dead. This number may increase,' Colonel Abdul Qadeer Sayad, a deputy police chief of Badakhshan province, told Reuters.
The landslide, which follows a week of heavy rain at a time of melting spring snow, crushed hundreds of houses and damaged hundreds more, he added.
Faziluddin Hayar, the police chief in Badakshan province, said the landslide happened about 1 p.m. Friday - just a few hours after a smaller landslide crashed into the village.
Before the disaster, an estimated 2,100 people lived in the village and a quarter of them are feared dead
Badakshan province, nestled in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges and bordering China, is one of the most remote in the country. The area has seen few attacks from insurgents following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Afghans living in the rugged mountains of northern Afghanistan are used to avalanches. The deadliest one in the past two years occurred in February 2010, when more than 170 people were killed at the 12,700-foot-high Salang Pass, which is the major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north.
Source: Associated Press
Those poor villagers are living in mud huts, literally made from clay and some additives like hay etc. and dried in the sun. I also could not see any trees around that could hold down the earth.