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Hope fades for Afghanistan avalanche victims
Officials in Afghanistan say that they do not expect to find more survivors of avalanches which have killed at least 169 people in the country's north-east.
Sniffer dogs and satellite imagery have pinpointed more vehicles buried deep in the deep mountain gorge where the avalanches happened, officials say.
But fresh snowfall and darkened skies brought a halt to rescue efforts in the Salang Pass on Thursday.
Officials insist the operation "is not yet finished".
The area has been hit by more than a dozen avalanches since Monday.
Correspondents say that it has been one of the country's worst natural disasters.
"Today we have taken out three bodies - a woman and two men, bringing to 169 the total number of bodies so far, with 130 injured," Parwan province Public Health Director Mohammad Qasim Sayedi told the AFP news agency.
The rescue operation is now being scaled down
Scores of vehicles which could contain more bodies remain buried beneath massive snow floes, the interior ministry said.
"We're not clear yet on how many cars are still under the snow, but police have been working on recovery since yesterday [Wednesday] and are hoping to bring the operation to an end soon," ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.
Defence ministry official Ahmad Zia Aftali said that the government now planned to ask the international coalition for additional equipment, including metal detectors, to aid the search. He said they did not expect to find anyone still alive.
The ferocity of the avalanches was so great that windows of cars and buses were smashed while some tumbled into the valley below, officials say.
Many of the dead were killed as their vehicles plunged down the mountainsides, while others perished in the freezing conditions.
Rescuers are using bulldozers, pick axes and shovels in the search for survivors.
The highway that winds through the mountainside remains littered with abandoned or snow-packed cars
