A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit western Afghanistan on Saturday causing one death and dozens of injuries, officials said, predicting the toll could rise amid reports of landslides and building collapses.<\/p>\n
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the epicentre was 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of the region\u2019s largest city of Herat, and was followed by five aftershocks with magnitudes of 5.5, 4.7, 6.3, 5.9 and 4.6.<\/p>\n
Crowds of residents and shopkeepers fled buildings in the city at around 11am (6:30am GMT) as the quakes began, causing 25 injuries and a single fatality, according to a Taliban government spokesman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in our offices and suddenly the building started shaking,\u201d 45-year-old Herat resident Bashir Ahmad told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cWall plasters started to fall down and the walls got cracks, some walls and parts of the building collapsed.\u201d \u201cI am not able to contact my family, network connections are disconnected. I am too worried and scared, it was horrifying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
National Disaster Management Authority spokesman Mullah Jan Sayeq told AFP the initial toll was \u201cpreliminary\u201d and he feared it would rise as \u201cin the rural and mountainous areas there have been landslides as well\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently, we don\u2019t have all the information and details,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit western Afghanistan on Saturday causing one death and dozens of injuries, officials said, predicting the toll could rise amid reports of landslides and building collapses. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the epicentre was 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of the region\u2019s largest city of Herat, and was followed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-360235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n