Ghaul Dori Village in Sari Pul province was hit by the avalanche of rock and mud on Wednesday, but it took days for the news to emerge from the remote region, which has no phones and is only accessible by four-wheel-drive vehicles, provincial Gov. Sayed Iqbal Munib said.

Three people were injured in the incident. Food, medicine and other relief supplies have been dispatched to the small community, Munib said.

He said it was not known what caused the disaster.

There have been a spate of deadly landslides in Afghan mountains in recent years and rampant illegal logging is believed to have caused some of them.

Even in and around the capital, Kabul, there has been widespread felling of trees to provide fuel for cooking and heating during the long winter.

The city has been blanketed in about a third of a meter (a foot) of snow in the past 24 hours, making life difficult for hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty. Last year, more than 300 people died from cold-related sickness around the country.