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A powerful 6.1 magnitude earthquake has struck eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 280 people.
The tremors occurred in the early hours, destroying at least 90 homes in Paktika province with rescuers desperately searching for survivors in the rubble after arriving by helicopter.
The international community has largely left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover of the country last year, which will likely complicate any relief efforts for this country of 38million.
A powerful 6.1 magnitude earthquake has struck eastern Afghanistan , killing at least 255 people, as rescuers fight to save survivors
A man carries a body wrapped in a rug after the tremors struck the province in the early hours
The earthquake struck Paktika province in east Afghanistan, some 100 miles south of the capital Kabul, and tremors were felt in India and Pakistan
The quake struck about 27 miles from the city of Khost, near the Pakistani border, at a depth of 32 miles
The head of the Taliban administration’s natural disaster ministry, Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, said the majority of deaths were in the province of Paktika, where 100 people were killed and 250 injured
Most of the confirmed deaths were in Paktika, where 255 people had been killed and more than 200 injured, said interior ministry official Salahuddin Ayubi
The state-run Bakhtar news agency reported the death toll and the news agency’s director-general, Abdul Wahid Rayan, wrote on Twitter that dozens of people are believed trapped under the rubble.
Footage from Paktika province near the Pakistan border showed victims being carried into helicopters to be airlifted from the area.
Images widely circulating online from the province showed destroyed stone houses, with residents picking through clay bricks and other rubble.
Bakhtar posted footage of a resident receiving IV fluids from a plastic chair outside the rubble of his home and others sprawled on gurneys.
The quake struck about 27 miles from the city of Khost, near the Pakistani border, the US Geological Survey (USGC) said.
‘Strong and long jolts,’ a resident of the Afghan capital, Kabul, posted on the website of the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).
‘It was strong,’ said a resident of the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.
Most of the confirmed deaths were in Paktika, where 255 people had been killed and more than 200 injured, said interior ministry official Salahuddin Ayubi.
In Khost province, 25 people had been killed and 90 taken to hospital, he said.
‘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,’ he said.
The international community has largely left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover of the country last year
Images widely circulating online from the province showed destroyed stone houses, with residents picking through clay bricks and other rubble
At least 90 homes have been destroyed with hundreds feared dead after the powerful earthquake
Residents stand around after their villages were reduced to rubble following the devastating earthquake
The disaster comes as Afghanistan has been enduring a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took over August, as U.S.-led international forces were withdrawing after two decades of war
In response to the Taliban takeover, many governments have imposed sanctions on Afghanistan’s banking sector and cut billions of dollars worth of development aid
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates
‘A severe earthquake shook four districts of Paktika province, killing and injuring hundreds of our countrymen and destroying dozens of houses,’ Bilal Karimi, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, separately wrote on Twitter. ‘We urge all aid agencies to send teams to the area immediately to prevent further catastrophe.’
Neighbouring Pakistan’s Meteorological Department put the earthquake at a magnitude 6.1. Tremors were felt in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and elsewhere in the eastern Punjab province.
The European seismological agency, EMSC, said the earthquake’s tremors were felt over 310 miles by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a statement offered his condolences over the earthquake, saying his nation will provide help to the Afghan people.
An Afghan foreign ministry spokesman said they would welcome help from any international organisation
Large parts of south Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate
In 2015, an earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan
The disaster comes as Afghanistan has been enduring a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took over August, as U.S.-led international forces were withdrawing after two decades of war.
In response to the Taliban takeover, many governments have imposed sanctions on Afghanistan’s banking sector and cut billions of dollars worth of development aid.
Humanitarian aid has continued and international agencies such as the United Nations operate in the country.
An Afghan foreign ministry spokesman said they would welcome help from any international organisation.
Large parts of south Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.
In 2015, an earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan.
A similar 6.1 earthquake in 2002 killed about 1,000 people in northern Afghanistan.
And in 1998, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tremors in Afghanistan’s remote northeast killed at least 4,500 people.
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