Twelve people were killed and dozens injured in an accident involving a fuel truck in a tunnel in eastern Afghanistan, Taliban officials said Sunday.

The accident killed at least 12 people and injured another 37, Public Works Ministry spokesman Hamidullah Misbah told AFP, adding that the death toll would rise.

According to Abdullah Afghana Mal, a senior health official in Parwan, the dead included “numerous women and children with severe burns.”

On Saturday night, “a petrol tanker overturned and caught fire in the Salang tunnel, causing the fire to spread to other vehicles,” Misbah said.

The Salang Pass, located in Parwan province, north of Kabul, is currently closed to traffic and rescue teams have been sent to the scene.

Located at an altitude of 3,650 meters above sea level, the 2.6 km long Salang Tunnel was built in the 1950s during the Soviet era and crosses the Hindu Kush mountain range.

Numerous accidents, heavy snowfalls and avalanches in winter force the authorities to regularly close the tunnel for several days.

In 2010, more than 150 people died in an avalanche at Salang Pass. (Agerpress)