Heavy snowfall and freezing weather have claimed 104 lives, including children and women, in Afghanistan over the past two weeks.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Natural Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs, Shafiullah Rahimi, said on Monday in Kabul.

In talks to local media, Mr Rahimi said 104 people, including children and women, lost their lives due to heavy snowfall, freezing weather and gas suffocation in parts of the country.

He said the deaths were recorded in Takhar, Badakhshan, Nimroz, Kandahar, Laghman, Ghazni, Uruzgan, Jawzjan, Sari Pul, Faryab, Paktika, Balkh, Samangan, Bamyan, and other areas.

In cash-strapped Afghanistan, where there is no heating system, people often use coal, wood or liquid gas to keep themselves warm, sometimes claiming lives due to gas leakage or carbon monoxide.

Extreme cold weather and snowfall have swept through parts of Afghanistan since the first week of January, when the temperature fell to minus 30 degrees Celsius in some areas. 

(Xinhua/NAN)