KABUL, March 19 (Xinhuanet) Floods triggered by heavy rainfall claimed at least 88 people killed, 12 missing and thousands homeless in several provinces of Afghanistan, Afghan official saidSaturday.

    "Included were 21 elders and 64 children who were killed in the southwestern province of Farah accompanied by the outbreak of some diseases," press officer Dad Mohammed Rasa told Xinhua.

    "A mother and her two children were killed in the central province of Ghor, where some 266 families have been evacuated and vast farmland has been destroyed."

    "In the northern province of Jawzjan, some 600 people have been transferred to safer locations."

    More people are feared dead in the remote areas due to impossible road access to the sites, officials said.

    "Altogether 57 houses were destroyed in Uruzgan, and 600 families in Deh Rawood district fled to the mountains."

    "All the report came before 7:00 am local time, the update is still not available," the officer noted.

    "In the flood-hit Uruzgan province, 12 Kochi or nomadic peoplewere reported missing and some 700 houses were ruined," Haji Jan Mohammad, Governor of the province said.

    "Around 250 people were evacuated from the flooding regions tosafe places. The rescue and evacuation are going on," he added.

    Recent rains and the unprecedented heavy snowfall hit most parts of Afghanistan in this winter after seven years of severe drought. The melting of the snow is becoming a major menace for local people in several provinces where infrastructure is poorly installed in the past quarter of century of war.

    In Faryab province neighboring Jawzjan heavy rainfall is continuing since last Monday. Three trucks were washed away when they tried to drive through the river in Gurzi Wan district.

    A father and his son were washed away and drowned by the suddenly emerging water in the Kabul River last week, which was anempty canal in the last five years. Enditem