Kabul: At least 52 people are missing and feared dead following a landslide in a remote village in northeastern Afghanistan, officials said on Tuesday.

Officials in the province of Badakhshan, about 600 kilometers (373 miles) from the capital, Kabul, are arranging helicopters to fly to the village to rescue survivors, said provincial governor Shah Waliullah.

Most of the 52 people reported missing by the district police were women and children, said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a spokesman for Badakhshan's police chief.

‘We have tasked our security forces to provide any kind of support they can to help victims,’ Ahmadzai said by telephone.

The area hit by the landslide has no paved roads and heavy snow still covers the paths to the village, officials said.

Hundreds of Afghans died last May in landslides in the same province, which borders Tajikistan, leaving entire villages flattened.