The death toll from flooding and mudslides that swamped homes in Tajikistan has risen to 21, including 10 children, with around 1,500 homes damaged, an emergency official said Saturday.
The deaths and destruction in the impoverished Central Asian state followed heavy downpours on Friday in the southeast of the mountainous country, emergency services spokesman Distmurod Zabirov told AFP.
Fourteen people died in flooding in the worst affected town of Kilyab, some 220 kilometres (130 miles) southeast of the capital Dushanbe, Zabirov said. Many of these deaths were reported on Friday.
The town's river rose by several metres (feet) after more heavy rain and "flowed around the city districts at night, destroying houses as people slept inside," Zabirov said.
A further seven died in neighbouring districts, Zabirov said.
"Around 48 people are listed as missing after the flood. The numbers could grow."
Mudslides strike every spring in the ex-Soviet state, more than 90 percent of which is covered by mountains, with 19 people killed earlier this year.
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