An earthquake in eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday left hundreds dead and more injured, with tremors felt in neighboring Pakistan and India.
“Unfortunately, last night there was a severe earthquake in four districts of Paktika province, which killed and injured hundreds of our countrymen and destroyed dozens of houses. We urge all aid agencies to send teams to the area immediately to prevent further catastrophe,” government spokesperson Bilal Karimi said in a June 22 Twitter post.
At a press conference, Deputy State Minister for Natural Disaster Management Mawlavi Sharfuddin Muslim said that the death toll from the earthquake now stood at 920. In addition, 610 people were reported injured, state-backed Bakhtar News Agency said in a Twitter post.
“The death toll is expected to increase as an investigation in affected areas is still ongoing,” the agency said. Some of the villages are located in remote mountainous regions meaning more time is needed to collect full details of the situation, interior ministry official Salahuddin Ayubi told Reuters.
The 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck around 27 miles from the southeastern city of Khost shortly after 1:30 a.m. local time when most people were asleep in their homes. The majority of casualties were in the Barmal and Gayan districts of Paktika province, a local doctor told the BBC. At least 216 people were killed and more than 300 injured in the Gayan district.
Images circulating on the Internet showed landslides and destroyed houses. Dozens of people are believed to be trapped under the rubble. Footage from the affected regions showed victims being airlifted and carried away on helicopters.
Tremors from the earthquake were felt in Pakistan where witnesses have reported feeling the quake in the capital city of Islamabad. However, no casualties have been reported in Pakistan while the damage has mostly been minimal, according to BBC Urdu.
READA LSO: U.S., Russia and Israel Focus on Syria
Afghan Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund convened an emergency meeting at the Presidential Palace to discuss coordinating relief efforts. Ramiz Alakbarov, the U.N. resident coordinator in Afghanistan, expressed condolences to the victims.
“@OCHAAfg and @unafghanistan are assessing the needs and responding in the aftermath of the earthquake last night which has taken hundreds of lives. Our condolences to the families of deceased, response is on its way,” Alakbarov said in a Twitter post.
Afghanistan is prone to earthquakes as it is located in a tectonically active region, with several fault lines like the Central Badakhshan fault, Hari Rud fault, Darvaz fault, and Chaman fault.
An average of 560 deaths are registered in Afghanistan every year from quakes. According to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 7,000 people have died in earthquakes in the country in the last decade.
