Afghanistan Earthquake Kills 800, Injures 2,800

More than 800 people have been killed with at least 2,500 injured after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan late on Sunday.

The quake devastated several towns in the province of Kunar, near the Pakistan border, centred 17 miles northeast of the city of Jalabad in Nangarhar.

Some 800 people died and another 2,500 were injured in Kunar, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a press conference in Kabul on Monday as rescue teams desperately tried to reach survivors.

A further 12 people were killed and 255 injured in Nangarhar province, the Afghan official added.

Taliban-led health authorities in Kabul, however, said they were still confirming the official toll figure as they worked to reach remote areas.

Sharafat Zaman, a spokesman for the ministry of public health, said that several villages had been 'completely destroyed' by the quake, with rescue operations hampered by the damage and fierce weather conditions.

Zaman said many areas had not been able to report casualty figures and that 'the numbers were expected to change' as death and injuries are reported.

Rescue efforts have been complicated by heavy rains and flooding, rendering much of the mountainous areas affected inaccessible, the International Rescue Committee said in a statement.

Sherine Ibrahim, IRC Afghanistan Country Director, said the earthquake was likely to 'dwarf' the scale of the Herat earthquakes of 2023, which the Taliban estimated killed some 4,000 people.

Patients lined the corridors at a busy hospital in affected Jalalabad - a city of 300,000 - on Monday, photos from within Taliban-controlled Afghanistan showed.

Most of the city's buildings are low-rise constructions, and its outlying areas include homes built of mud bricks and wood. Many are of poor construction.

The earthquake was just five miles deep, with shallower quakes tending to cause more damage. Several aftershocks followed.

It also brought devastation to rural areas, stretching the resources and capabilities of rescue teams.

Jeremy Smith, British Red Cross Country Manager for Afghanistan, said: 'The location of this earthquake is very remote and mountainous, which makes rescue efforts particularly challenging.

'There have been repeated aftershocks and more are feared in the coming days. Floods and landslides over the weekend have also affected rescue efforts.

'Sadly, people will be displaced for a long period into the winter as homes have been destroyed.

'The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is delivering vital aid and will continue to do so for as long as people need us.'

The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) is responding to help people affected by the quake, the British Red Cross said in a statement shared with the Daily Mail.

ARCS-trained volunteers were supporting rescue efforts, with priority placed on distributing medicine, trauma care and blood supplies, as well as food and drinking water. Those affected will also urgently require mental health and psycho-social support, and safe places for women impacted, the Red Cross said.

One resident in Nurgal district, one of the worst-affected areas in Kunar, said nearly the entire village was destroyed.

'Children are under the rubble. The elderly are under the rubble. Young people are under the rubble,' the villager, who did not give his name, told the Associated Press.

'We need help here,' he pleaded. 'We need people to come here and join us. Let us pull out the people who are buried. There is no one who can come and remove dead bodies from under the rubble.'

Sadiqullah, who lives in the Maza Dara area of Nurgal, said he was woken by a deep boom that sounded like a storm approaching. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name.

He ran to where his children were sleeping and rescued three of them. He was about to return to grab the rest of his family when the room fell on top of him.

'I was half-buried and unable to get out,' he told The Associated Press by phone from Nangarhar Hospital.

'My wife and two sons are dead, and my father is injured and in hospital with me. We were trapped for three to four hours until people from other areas arrived and pulled me out.'

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned that the quake in Afghanistan was likely to 'dwarf' the scale of the humanitarian needs caused by the Herat earthquakes of 2023, which the Taliban said killed some 4,000 people.

'Although we have been able to act fast, we are profoundly fearful for the additional strain that this disaster will have on the overall humanitarian response in Afghanistan,' said Sherine Ibrahim, IRC Afghanistan Country Director.

'Global funding cuts have dramatically hampered our ability to respond to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. It is high time that the international community recognises the immense need in the country and steps up support for Afghans who are in critical need.'

The IRC's response will scale across Nangarhar and Laghman provinces, where teams already have a deeply rooted presence, the IRC said on Monday.

Rescuers were scrambling to find survivors in the area bordering Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, where homes of mud and stone were levelled.

Blocked roads are forcing aid workers to walk four or five hours to reach survivors, the AP reported.

Dozens of flights have operated in and out of Nangarhar Airport, transporting the injured to hospitals.

One survivor described seeing homes collapse before his eyes and people screaming for help.

'So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work,' a foreign office spokesperson said.

Tremors began in the middle of the night local time, close to the border with Pakistan - leaving scenes of devastation in their wake.

The quake reportedly shook buildings from Kabul to Pakistan's capital Islamabad around 220 miles away for several seconds.

Nangarhar province was also hit by flooding overnight Friday to Saturday, which left five people dead and destroyed crops and property, authorities said.

Naqibullah Rahimi, a spokesman for the Nangarhar Public Health Department, said 15 people were injured and taken to the local hospital for treatment.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake previously struck Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2023, followed by strong aftershocks.

The Taliban government estimated at least 4,000 people perished.

The U.N. gave a lower death toll of about 1,500. It was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory.