At least 1,000 people have been killed and more than 1,500 injured after a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in southeastern Afghanistan, officials have said.
The quake struck about 27 miles (44km) from the city of Khost, close to the country’s border with Pakistan, and was at a depth of 31.6 miles (51km), according to the US Geological Survey.
The numbers of those killed and injured were reported by the country’s state-run Bakhtar News Agency.
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Pic: UNICEF
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Pic: Afghan government news agency via AP
“The death toll is likely to rise as some of the villages are in remote areas in the mountains and it will take some time to collect details,” interior ministry official Salahuddin Ayubi said.
The majority of the fatalities were in the province of Paktika. Footage from the area, near the Pakistan border, showed victims being carried into helicopters to be airlifted from the area.
Bakhtar News Agency posted images of destroyed stone houses and the injured being treated in hospital.
Its director-general, Abdul Wahid Rayan, wrote on Twitter that 90 homes were destroyed in the province of Paktika and dozens of people are believed to be trapped under the rubble.
“A severe earthquake shook four districts of Paktika province, killing and injuring hundreds of our countrymen and destroying dozens of houses,” tweeted Bilal Karimi, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban government.
“We urge all aid agencies to send teams to the area immediately to prevent further catastrophe.”
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Taliban fighters secure a government helicopter to evacuate injured people in Gayan district, Paktika province, Afghanistan. Pic: Afghan government news agency via AP
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Pic: UNICEF
It comes amid an economic and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control in August last year and the withdrawal of US-led international forces after two decades of war.
Its already fragile economy, heavily dependent on aid, has been crippled by Western sanctions on its banking sector and billions of cuts in aid.
Tremors were felt over a range of around 310 miles (500km) by about 119 million people in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said in a tweet.
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Pic: UNICEF
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Pic: Afghan government news agency
They extended to the Afghan capital Kabul, as well as Islamabad in Pakistan, according to witness accounts posted on the EMSC website and by Twitter users.
“Strong and long jolts,” one witness from Kabul wrote on the EMSC website. “It was strong,” said another witness from Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in Pakistan.
Afghanistan has a long history of earthquakes, many in the mountainous Hindu Kush region bordering Pakistan.
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake in 2015 killed 399 people in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan and India.
