Quake near Jalalabad struck 8km deep; shallow tremors threaten mud-brick homes, raising risk of major damage
\n kabul
\nA massive rescue operation was underway in Afghanistan on Monday, after a strong earthquake and multiple aftershocks collapsed homes onto sleeping families in a remote, mountainous region, killing more than 800 people, according to the Taliban authorities.
\nThe 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck just before midnight, rattling buildings from Kabul to neighbouring Pakistan\u2019s capital, Islamabad.
\nMore than 1.2 million people likely felt strong or very strong shaking, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), which recorded at least five aftershocks throughout the night.
\nCasualties and destruction swept across at least five provinces.
\nNear the epicentre in eastern Afghanistan, around 800 people were killed and 2,500 injured in remote Kunar province alone, chief Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
\nAnother 12 people were killed and 255 injured in neighbouring Nangarhar province, while 58 people were injured in Laghman province.
\nIn Wadir village in the hard-hit district of Nurgal, dozens of people joined the effort to pull people from the rubble of destroyed or severely damaged homes more than 12 hours after the initial earthquake, AFP journalists saw.
\nThe epicentre was about 27 kilometres (17 miles) from the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, according to the USGS, which said it struck about eight kilometres below the Earth\u2019s surface.
\nSuch relatively shallow quakes can cause more damage, especially since the majority of Afghans live in low-rise, mud-brick homes vulnerable to collapse.
\nSome of the most severely impacted villages in remote Kunar provinces \u201cremain inaccessible due to road blockages\u201d, the UN migration agency warned in a statement to AFP.
\nThe Taliban authorities and the United Nations mobilised rescue efforts, with the defence ministry saying at least 40 flight sorties had so far been carried out.
\nA member of the agricultural department in Nurgal said people had rushed to clear blocked roads in the hours after the earthquake, but that badly affected areas were remote and had limited telecoms networks.
\n\u201cThere is a lot of fear and tension… Children and women were screaming. We had never experienced anything like this in our lives,\u201d Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad told AFP.
\nHe said that many living in quake-hit villages were among the more than four million Afghans who have returned to the country from Iran and Pakistan in recent years.
\n\u201cThey wanted to build their homes here.\u201d
\nNangarhar and Kunar provinces border Pakistan, with the Torkham crossing the site of many waves of Afghan returnees deported or forced to leave, often with no work and nowhere to go.
\nUN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added his condolences to those shared by the Taliban government and several nations.
\n\u201cI stand in full solidarity with the people of Afghanistan after the devastating earthquake that hit the country earlier today,\u201d he said.
\nIn a post shared by the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV said he was \u201cdeeply saddened by the significant loss of life caused by the earthquake in the area of eastern Afghanistan\u201d. Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasia and India tectonic plates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Quake near Jalalabad struck 8km deep; shallow tremors threaten mud-brick homes, raising risk of major damage kabul A massive rescue operation was underway in Afghanistan on Monday, after a strong earthquake and multiple aftershocks collapsed homes onto sleeping families in a remote, mountainous region, killing more than 800 people, according to the Taliban authorities. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-500520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n