Rescuers trying to force their
way through to the shattered town of Nahrin at the centre of the Afghan earthquake face a nightmare of mines, experts said today.
"There are a lot of anti-tank mines on the roads into Nahrin," Guy Willoughby, director of the HALO Trust de-mining group, told Reutersby telephone.
"The town was on the front lines between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, and the Northern Alliance laid a lot of anti-tank mines on the roads to stop them taking the town," he said.
Some help, including thousands of tents and hundreds of blankets, has been sent to Nahrin from the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, but the near closure of the Salang tunnel on the route from the capital Kabul will complicate aid efforts.
The Salang, the world's highest road tunnel at 3,363 metres (11,034 feet), was partially blocked today when two trucks overturned in it. Officials said reopening it might take two days.
Mr Willoughby said access from the south - held by the Taliban before the US-led bombing campaign forced them out - was complicated because of the mines which are on the roads as well as scattered on the mountainsides.
He said HALO Trust, which is the only foreign de-mining outfit in the area, was diverting most of its heavy equipment to efforts to force an access route through to Nahrin and its surrounding villages.