DHAKA: Afghan officials gave up hope on Saturday of finding any survivors from a landslide in the remote north-east, putting the death toll at more than 2,100, as the aid effort focused on the more than 4,000 people displaced.

Officials expressed concern that the unstable hillside above the site of the disaster may cave in again, threatening the thousands of homeless and hundreds of rescue workers who have arrived in Badakhshan province, bordering Tajikistan.

‘More then 2,100 people from 300 families are all dead,’ Naweed Forotan, a spokesman for the Badakhshan provincial governor, told media, reports The Straits Times.

Villagers and a few dozen police, equipped with only basic digging tools, resumed their search when daylight broke but it soon became clear there was no hope of finding survivors buried in up to 100 metres of mud.

BDST: 1652 HRS, MAY 03, 2014