KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A United Nations spokesman says at least 350 people have died in a landslide in a remote area in northeastern Afghanistan. 
 
 Ari Gaitanis, from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, says the U.N. is working with authorities on the ground to rescue people still trapped. 
 
 Badakhshan province where Friday's landslide occurred is nestled in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges and bordering China. 

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rescuers are using their bare hands to dig through the mud, as David Loyn reports 
 
 At least 350 people have been killed and many more are missing, the UN says, after a landslide hit the north-east Afghan province of Badakhshan. 
 
 Hundreds of homes were buried under mud and rocks when a section of a mountain collapsed following torrential rain. 
 
 Rescuers have reached the area and are searching for survivors. 
 
 Much of north and east Afghanistan has been hit by heavy rain in recent days, and some 150 people have died in flooding. 
 
 "The number of deceased has increased to 350 and significant displacement is expected," the UN mission in Afghanistan said in a statement. 
 
 "The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is helping... local authorities to rescue those still trapped." 
 
 Tonnes of mud 
 
 Local officials say that more than 2,000 people are missing. 
 
 About 1,000 houses were affected - 300 of them buried immediately after the side of a mountain gave way. 
 
 As it was Friday morning, a day of rest in Afghanistan, people were at home and whole families were lost under tonnes of mud. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Homes are buried beneath the mud and rocks 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Officials say it is unlikely that anyone buried under the rubble is alive 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Early television images showed almost the entire valley engulfed in mud 
 
 Badakhshan police commander Fazludeen Ayaz told the BBC that all of the village of Hargu - home to 215 families - was covered by earth and rock. 
 
 He said it was unlikely that anyone would be rescued alive from under the rubble and that even if there was rescue equipment available in the remote area, it would be difficult to dig people out. 
 
 Remote 
 
 The BBC's Qurbon Ali Hamzi in Badakhshan says it is still raining and there are fears of further landslides. 
 
 Badakhshan is in the most remote and mountainous part of the country, bordering Tajikistan, China and Pakistan. 
 
 Searching for survivors is a huge task, our correspondent adds. 
 
 The governor of Badakhshan province, Shah Waliullah Adeeb, told AP news agency that rescue crews did not have enough equipment and appealed for shovels. 
 
 "It's physically impossible right now," Mr Adeeb said. "We don't have enough shovels; we need more machinery.'' 
 
 He said that residents of nearby villages had been evacuated amid concerns about further landslides. 
 
 Another, smaller landslide was reported in Badakhshan on Thursday. 

 Afghan villagers gather at the site of a landslide at the Argo district in Badakhshan province, May 2, 2014. 
 
 Afghan villagers gather at the site of a landslide at the Argo district in Badakhshan province, May 2, 2014. 
 
 Afghan villagers gather at the site of a landslide at the Argo district in Badakhshan province, May 2, 2014. 
 
 KABUL Hundreds of people have been killed and more than 2,000 are missing after a landslide smashed into a village in a mountainous area of north Afghanistan on Friday, and rescue teams were struggling to reach the remote area. 
 
 Villagers dug with their bare hands to try to find survivors under the mountain of mud, but officials said there was little hope of finding anyone alive given the scale of the disaster. 
 
 Triggered by heavy rain, the side of a mountain collapsed into the village in Argo district at around 11 a.m. (2.30 a.m. ET) as people were trying to recover their belongings and livestock after a smaller landslip hit their homes a few hours earlier. 
 
 "There were more than 1,000 families living in that village. A total of 2,100 people - men, women and children - are trapped," Naweed Forotan, a spokesman for the Badakhshan provincial governor, told Reuters. 
 
 "As the part of the mountain which collapsed is so big, we don't believe anyone would survive. The government and locals from surrounding villagers are helping with the rescue, and so far they have recovered more then a hundred bodies." 
 
 The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) put the number of fatalities at 350. 
 
 At least 100 people were being treated for injuries, according to Colonel Abdul Qadeer Sayad, a deputy police chief of Badakhshan, which borders Tajikistan. Hundreds of mudbrick homes were crushed and hundreds more damaged, he said. 
 
 DIFFICULT CONDITIONS 
 
 Rescue efforts have been hampered by difficult conditions due to a week of heavy rain. Seasonal rains and spring snow melt have caused heavy destruction across large swathes of northern Afghanistan, killing more than 100 people. 
 
 President Hamid Karzai ordered Afghan officials to start emergency relief efforts immediately to reach the poor village. 
 
 A U.N. representative in Kabul said roads to the village were open but passage was not suitable for heavy machinery. 
 
 "Due to the size of the landslide, it is impossible to search for bodies without advanced machinery," Col. Sayad said, "We hope to get some machinery and aid soon tomorrow." 
 
 A U.N. representative in Kabul said roads to the village were open but passage was not suitable for heavy machinery. 
 
 Mark Bowden, the U.N. humanitarian co-ordinator in Afghanistan, said it may be some time yet until a clear picture of the full extent of the damage is known. 
 
 NATO-led coalition troops in the region were discussing search and rescue contributions with Afghan forces, the United Nations said. 
 
 U.S. President Barack Obama, in remarks before a news conference at the White House with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, expressed his condolences. 
 
 "Just as the United States has stood with the people of Afghanistan through a difficult decade, we stand ready to help our Afghan partners as they respond to this disaster, for even as our war there comes to an end this year, our commitment to Afghanistan and its people will endure," he said. 
 
 About 30,000 U.S. soldiers remain in Afghanistan, although that number is falling as Washington prepares to withdraw by the end of this year all combat troops who battled Taliban insurgents. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Writing by Jeremy Laurence; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Angus MacSwan)
– A huge landslide in northeast Afghanistan is already registering catastrophic casualties. The UN says at least 350 people are dead, reports AP, and authorities say about 2,000 are missing. Mud and rocks buried homes in a remote, mountainous area of Badakhshan province near the border with China, following days of heavy rain. The BBC's correspondent estimates that 300 homes were buried immediately and that hundreds more are endangered. "There were more than 1,000 families living in that village," a spokesperson for the Badakhshan governor tells Reuters. "A total of 2,100 people—men, women, and children—are trapped."