Two shallow quakes less than half an hour apart shook the mountainous Hindu Kush region on Monday, starting a slide of debris that smashed into a remote village, burying mudbrick houses to a depth of up to 100 metres (300 feet).

In Burka district, the worst-hit area in the province of Baghlan, people in the village of Mullah Jan said 71 people had been trapped. An official who asked not to be named described the chances of survival as 'very slim.

The governor of Baghlan province said 22 homes were buried but the bodies of only two women had been recovered. Twenty people were in hospital with injuries.'We don’t think we will be able to take out the other bodies,' Governor Abdul Majid said Officials have so far confirmed that only three bodies have been recovered, while six injured people have been rescued.

A bulldozer was at work digging through the rubble at Mullah Jan, according to Rafiullah Rasoolzai, spokesman for the disaster response agency, who said emergency supplies of food, water and shelter had been brought in.

'Villagers told Afghan government representatives that 71 people are missing,' he said. 'They’re buried in their home under between 30 and 100 metres of dirt and earth.'.