Afghanistan earthquake kills no less than 920 folks, says official

A robust earthquake struck a rural, mountainous area of japanese Afghanistan close to the Pakistani border early Wednesday, killing no less than 920 folks and injuring 600 others, authorities mentioned. Officials warned the dying toll would possible rise.

Information remained scarce on the magnitude 6.1 temblor that broken buildings in Khost and Paktika provinces. Rescue efforts are prone to be difficult since many worldwide support businesses left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover of the nation final yr and the chaotic withdrawal of the US army from the longest struggle in its historical past.

In this photograph launched by a state-run information company Bakhtar, Afghans evacuate wounded in an earthquake within the province of Paktika, japanese Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (Bakhtar News Agency through AP)

Neighboring Pakistan’s Meteorological Department mentioned the quake’s epicenter was in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, simply close to the border and a few 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of town of Khost. Such temblors could cause extreme injury, notably in an space like this one the place houses and different buildings are poorly constructed and landslides are frequent.

Footage from Paktika province confirmed folks being carried into helicopters to be airlifted from the realm. Others have been handled on the bottom. One resident could possibly be seen receiving IV fluids whereas sitting in a plastic chair exterior the rubble of his dwelling and nonetheless extra have been sprawled on gurneys. Other photographs confirmed residents choosing by clay bricks and different rubble from destroyed stone homes.

Afghan emergency official Sharafuddin Muslim gave the dying toll in a information convention Wednesday. Earlier, the director-general of state-run Bakhtar information company, Abdul Wahid Rayan, wrote on Twitter that 90 homes have been destroyed in Paktika and dozens of persons are believed trapped underneath the rubble.

People carry injured to be evacuated following an enormous earthquake, in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, June 22, 2022, on this display screen seize taken from a video. BAKHTAR NEWS AGENCY/Handout through REUTERS

Bilal Karimi, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban authorities, gave no particular dying toll however wrote on Twitter that lots of of individuals have been killed and injured within the earthquake, which shook 4 districts in Paktika.

“We urge all aid agencies to send teams to the area immediately to prevent further catastrophe,” he wrote.
In only one district of the neighboring Khost province, the earthquake killed no less than 25 folks and injured over 95 others, native officers mentioned.

In Kabul, Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund convened an emergency assembly on the presidential palace to coordinate the reduction effort for victims in Paktika and Khost.

The “response is on its way,” the UN resident coordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, wrote on Twitter.
Some distant areas of Pakistan noticed reviews of injury to houses close to the Afghan border, nevertheless it wasn’t instantly clear if that was resulting from rain or the earthquake, mentioned Taimoor Khan, a catastrophe administration spokesperson within the space.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a press release supplied his condolences over the earthquake, saying his nation will present assist to the Afghan folks.

The European seismological company, EMSC, mentioned the earthquake’s tremors have been felt over 500 kilometers (310 miles) by 119 million folks throughout Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Mountainous Afghanistan and the bigger area of South Asia alongside the Hindu Kush mountains has lengthy been weak to devastating earthquakes.

In 2015, a serious earthquake that struck the nation’s northeast killed over 200 folks in Afghanistan and neighboring northern Pakistan. A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in 2002 killed about 1,000 folks in northern Afghanistan. And in 1998, one other earthquake of the identical power and subsequent tremors in Afghanistan’s distant northeast killed no less than 4,500 folks.