Flash flooding on Saturday night, triggered by torrential rains in central Afghanistan, has left 26 dead and more than 40 missing, officials said on Sunday. Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for the state ministry of disaster management, said a total of 31 people have died since Friday in the floods that also caused extensive damage to property and farmland, AFP news agency reported. According to the Taliban government, more than 600 homes have been partially or completely damaged.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said urgent assistance was being delivered to the main disaster area in the Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak Province, according to the AFP report. Although Afghanistan lies at the western edge of the Asian monsoon footprint, flash floods occur regularly during the wet season when heavy rains spill over dry riverbeds.

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Since Friday, 604 homes in Jalrez have been partially or completely damaged and hundreds of acres of farmland and orchards destroyed, Rahimi told a news conference. In Afghanistan, “214 people have died in natural disaster-related incidents in the past four months,” Rahimi said.

According to the Associated Press, Mujahid said about 40 people are missing following the flash floods in the Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak province, west of Kabul.

The provincial governor’s office also said in a statement that hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed, while the missing people are believed to be under the rubble of collapsed homes, the AP reported.

The statement also said that hundreds of hectares of farmland had been washed away and destroyed, while the highway between the capital Kabul and the central province of Bamiyan was also closed due to the flooding.

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