Ten dead in Tajikistan avalanches

Ten people died Wednesday in avalanches in Tajikistan, officials in the mountainous Central Asian country said.

One of the poorest former Soviet states, Tajikistan regularly suffers natural disasters like landslides and earthquakes.

Nine people died in avalanches in Gorno-Badakhshan, a semi-autonomous eastern region that borders Afghanistan, the emergency services said.

The sparsely populated territory is surrounded by the towering Pamir Mountains.

Another person was killed in an avalanche on a highway near the capital Dushanbe.

Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon expressed his condolences to the victims' families.