At least 25 people were killed and eight others were injured in a rock fall caused by heavy snowfall on Sunday in northeastern Afghanistan’s Nuristan province, the Disaster Management Ministry announced today.

“Due to the rockfall, about 25 of our fellow citizens were killed and eight injured,” ministry spokesman Janan Sayegh said in a video sent to reporters. He added, speaking to AFP, that the toll could rise.

“It’s still snowing. Rescue crews are on their way and the death toll may increase,” Jamullah Hashimi, head of the Nuristan province’s Information and Culture department, also estimated.

The rockfall damaged the village of Nacre in the Tatin Valley. Houses were found under rocks and snow with about twenty destroyed or severely damaged, Hashimi explained.

Nuristan is a province bordering Pakistan. Much of the province is covered by forests as well as by the mountains of the Hindu Kush range.

Avalanches or landslides occur every year in Afghanistan’s mountainous north, which prove even more deadly as authorities lack the necessary equipment to rescue those trapped.

This year the snow was very late in Afghanistan, a country accustomed to particularly harsh winters in its mountainous regions, another sign of the effects of climate change. By mid-January, there had still been no snowfall in Kabul, at least a month and a half behind normal.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, after decades of war, and is particularly hard hit by climate change. Half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line and 15 million people are food insecure, according to the World Bank.