At least 87 people including children have reportedly been killed with dozens more injured after an oil tanker exploded inside a tunnel in Afghanistan.
Images show black smoke billowing out from the Salang tunnel, north of Kabul, while there are also pictures of vehicles that were incinerated inside.
Afghan media has distressing footage showing people in hospital with severe burn injuries.
A desperate rescue operation has seen bodies continue to be removed during Monday with now at least 87 people reported dead with a Taliban government spokesman having said 31 were dead earlier.
There are believed to be still people trapped under the rubble while the severity of the fire has made it very difficult to identify victims.
"An oil tanker overturned and caught fire in the Salang tunnel, which then set several other vehicles on fire," said Hamidullah Misbah, a Ministry of Public Works spokesman.
Local media Amu TV spoke to survivors of the crash in hospital who had suffered burns and tweeted: "In this event, at least 87 people died and 86 others were injured."
It also told of one family where a husband and wife along with three children all perished in the infierno.
The news outlet said that Mohammad Hanif Nashir, from the village of Mama Khel village in Kunduz province died along with his wife and three children.
The dead man's brother reportedly said: "Yesterday afternoon the flames subsided, the firefighters who came from Kabul had entered the tunnel and extinguished the vehicles [on fire] and one by one pulled them out, and we waited until 11pm in front of the tunnel, while they pulled out the car that my brother with his family was in. My brother, his wife, and his three children perished."
The circumstances of the oil tankers explosion are still unclear with the tunnel, originally built in the 1960s to assist the Soviet invasion, a key link between north and south Afghanistan.
The Salang pass is one of the highest mountain motorways in the world at around 12,000 feet and includes the 1.6 mile long tunnel.
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his condolences over the blast, saying he received news about the dead and injured in the explosion in Parwan province with "great sadness."
"I offer my deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this tragic incident and pray for the quick recovery of the injured," he tweeted.
