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Hundreds are feared dead and injured in a magnitude 6 earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, authorities have said, as rescuers combed the rubble of homes looking for survivors.
Early reports showed 30 dead in a single village, the health ministry said on Monday, but added that accurate casualty figures had yet to be gathered in an area of scattered hamlets. “The number of casualties and injuries is high but since the area is difficult to access our teams are still on site,” health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman said.
Sediqullah Quraishi Badloon, a communications official for Nangarhar province, quoted a death toll of 250, according to the New York Times, most of which were in neighbouring Kunar province. Badloon gave a figure of nine deaths in Nangarhar.
The BBC reported that multiple sources in Kunar province said “hundreds are dead”, with many more injured.
The quake struck the rugged province of Kunar at 11.47pm on Sunday and was centred 27km north-east of the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, the US Geological Survey said. It was just 8km deep. Shallower quakes tend to cause more damage.
A 4.5 magnitude quake occurred 20 minutes later in the same province.
Hundreds of injured were taken to hospital, said Najibullah Hanif, the provincial information head, with figures likely to rise as reports arrived from remote areas with few roads.
Jalalabad is a bustling trade city due to its proximity with neighboring Pakistan and a key border crossing between the countries. Although it has a population of about 300,000 according to the municipality, it’s metropolitan area is thought to be far larger. Most of its buildings are low-rise constructions, mostly of concrete and brick, and its outlying areas include homes built of mud bricks and wood. Many are of poor construction.
Jalalabad also has considerable agriculture and farming, including citrus fruit and rice, with the Kabul River flowing through the city.
Rescuers were working in several districts of the mountainous province where the quake hit, levelling homes of mud and stone on the border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, officials said.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, underscoring the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest countries to natural disasters.
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Afghanistan on 7 October 2023, followed by strong aftershocks. The Taliban government estimated that at least 4,000 people perished.
The UN gave a far lower death toll of about 1,500. It was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory.
With Reuters and AP
