Afghanistan earthquake live updates: At least 1,000 killed

Photo provided by the state news agency Bakhtiar of the devastation caused by the earthquake that hit the eastern Afghan province of Paktika, Wednesday, … Bakhtiar News Agency, via Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan – At least 1,000 people were killed and more than 1,500 injured after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake rocked a remote mountainous region in southeastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan early Wednesday morning, the state-run Bakhtar news agency said.

The quake occurred about 28 miles southwest of Khost, the provincial capital in the southeast of the country, and was at a depth of about six miles, the US Geological Survey said. Rais Hudhaifa, director of media and culture for eastern Paktika state, said the quake was felt in several provinces.

Some of the quake-hit areas are located in a remote and violent country near the Pakistani border that has been the scene of heavy fighting before and after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, and telecommunications are poor or non-existent, making it difficult to get a full account of the situation. injuries. An aid official said he expected the death toll to be much higher.

Muhammad Al-Mas, head of aid and appeals department at Qamar Charity in Afghanistan active in the area, said he expects the death toll to rise, as the area is far from hospitals, and because the earthquake occurred at night, when most people were present. Sleeping indoors.

He said that as many as 17 members of the same family were killed in one village when their house collapsed; Only one child survived. He said more than 25 villages were almost completely destroyed, including schools, mosques and homes.

Shabeer Ahmed Osmani, director of media and culture for Khost province, said in a phone call that the earthquake in Spire district of Khost province, northeast of Paktika province, killed at least 40 people and injured 90 others.

Rafiullah Rahil, chief of health department of Paktika state, said 381 people were killed and 205 injured in that district.

An image provided by the US Geological Survey shows the site of the earthquake, whose epicenter was about 28 miles southwest of Khost, in Paktika Province.

It was not immediately clear whether the figures provided by regional officials were preliminary estimates or whether large numbers of casualties were recorded elsewhere.

The Bakhtar news agency posted on Twitter video footage of a helicopter landing in what it said was an earthquake-hit area. She said ambulances were taking the wounded to hospitals.

Sarhadi Khosti, 26, who lives in the Sebra district, said he was woken up by the quake just after 1 am, and a number of homes – especially those made of soil or wood – were completely destroyed. He said that helicopters transported some of the wounded to hospitals in Kabul and neighboring provinces.

“For now, we are still busy getting the dead or injured out from under the rubble,” he said.

Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov, Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan to the United Nations, wrote on Twitter that the organization was assessing the situation in the aftermath of the earthquake. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said on Twitter that the agency “will continue to support those in need across the country”.

The US Geological Survey said the quake occurred about 300 miles northeast of the site of a deadly 6.4-magnitude earthquake in Pakistan in 2008. More than 200 people were reported killed at that time.

The quake was felt in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and in the northern part of neighboring Pakistan, according to a map published by the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center on its website. The US Geological Survey said a second earthquake of magnitude 4.5 struck about 30 miles southwest of Khost about an hour later.

Safiullah Badshah reports from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Mike Ives from Seoul. Isabella Quay and Emma Popola contributed reporting from London, and Salman Masoud from Islamabad, Pakistan.

– Safiullah Badshah and Mike Ives

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