KABUL, June 22 (Reuters) – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake killed 920 people in Afghanistan in the early hours of Wednesday, disaster management officials said, with more than 600 injured and numbers expected to rise as information arrives from remote mountain villages.
Photographs in the Afghan media showed houses reduced to rubble, with bodies wrapped in blankets lying on the ground.
Helicopters were deployed in the rescue effort to reach the injured and fly with medical supplies and food, Interior Ministry official Salahuddin Ayubi said.
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“The death toll is likely to rise as some of the villages are located in remote areas of the mountains and it will take some time to gather details.”
Wednesday’s quake was the deadliest since 2002. It affected about 44 km (27 miles) of the southeastern city of Khost, near the Pakistani border, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGC) said.
Most of the confirmed deaths occurred in the eastern province of Paktika, where 255 people died and more than 200 were injured, Ayubi added. In Khost province, 25 died and 90 were taken to hospital.
Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the ruling Taliban, offered his condolences in a statement.
Setting up a rescue operation could be an important test for the Taliban, who took over the country in August and have been cut off from much international aid due to sanctions.
Some 119 million people were shaking in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, the EMSC said on Twitter, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in Pakistan.
The EMSC estimated the magnitude of the quake at 6.1, although the USGC said it was 5.9.
People are carrying injured people in a helicopter after a massive earthquake in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 22, 2022, in this screenshot taken from a video. BAKHTAR NEWS AGENCY / BROCHURE through REUTERS
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Adding to the challenge for the Afghan authorities are the recent floods in many regions, which the disaster agency said killed 11, injured 50 and blocked sections of the highway.
The disaster comes as Afghanistan faces a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took over, while US-led international forces have withdrawn after two decades of war.
In response to the Taliban’s takeover, many nations imposed sanctions on Afghanistan’s banking sector and cut billions of dollars in development aid.
Humanitarian aid, however, has continued with international agencies, such as the United Nations, in operation.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said Afghanistan had called on humanitarian agencies to help with rescue efforts and that equipment was being sent to the quake-hit area. .
A spokesman for Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said he would appreciate international aid. Neighbor Pakistan said it was working to expand assistance.
Much of South Asia is seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing northward toward the Eurasian plate. Read more
In 2015, an earthquake struck the remote northeastern Afghanistan, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.
An earthquake struck western Afghanistan in January, killing more than 20 people.
(This story corrects the death toll at 920, not 950)
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Report by Shubham Kalia in Bangalore and Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul and Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Additional report by Alasdair Pal in Delhi; Written by Charlotte Greenfield; Edited by Robert Birsel and Clarence Fernandez
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