KUNDUZ: Sixty-five people, most of them women and children, died when a floor collapsed at a wedding in one of the most remote regions of northern Afghanistan, an official said Thursday. The accident happened on Wednesday in a village in the Jalga district of Baghlan province, an impoverished and isolated area deep in the Pamir mountains.
“Sixty-five people have been killed. They will be buried today,” Mahmood Haqmal, spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP.
Officials said the floor collapsed at 1:00 pm during the wedding party in Warchi village, and had earlier put the toll at “more than 40”.
Haqmal said the upper floor of the two-storey building was packed with people when it crashed to the ground.
He said houses in the area were very old, made of mud bricks and covered with wood, and probably unable to bear the weight of so many people.
Weddings are one of the principal forms of entertainment and social interaction in Afghanistan, where men and women typically celebrate in separate quarters.
According to Islamic tradition, funerals are held as soon as possible after death.
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