Earthquake death toll rises World news

Agreement (AP)

For several minutes after the earthquake, he could hear their screams. Then there was silence.

Mohibullah Niazi, a neighbor who helped with the rescue effort, said on Saturday that the eight people killed on the outskirts of Kabul after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck northern Afghanistan the night before were from a refugee family who had recently returned from neighboring Iran.

There was only one survivor: a boy of about three years old, who was injured and taken to hospital in Kabul.

Deputy spokesman for the Afghan government, Hamdullah Fatat, raised the total number of deaths as a result of the earthquake to 12, in addition to the injury of four others. Vitrat said five homes were destroyed and 33 other homes were severely damaged, affecting 40 families in the provinces of Kabul, Panjshir, Logar, Nangarhar, Laghman and Nuristan.

The Afghan Disaster Management Authority put the total death toll at nine. The reason for this discrepancy was not immediately clear.

The family near Kabul were among millions of Afghan refugees who recently returned from Iran and Pakistan, after the two countries launched crackdowns in 2023 on foreigners – especially Afghans – living in their countries.

They had arrived 15 days earlier and were living in a tent on land next to Niazi’s house. The head of the family, Najibullah, who was about 50 years old, “had no other shelter,” Niazi said. “He was a very poor person.”

“We did our best”

The family had set up their tent next to a wall separating the plot of land from Niazi’s house, which is located on high ground in the village of Ittefaq on the eastern outskirts of the Afghan capital.

Heavy rains over the past few days, which have led to deadly floods in many parts of Afghanistan, have left the ground soggy and soft. When the earthquake occurred, the wall collapsed on the family.

Standing at the scene of the accident, Niazi recounted: “My daughter screamed that the wall had fallen on them. The whole family ran away, but there were a lot of big rocks.” “We did our best.”

On Saturday morning, all that remained were piles of bricks and mud, along with blankets, cooking utensils and other personal belongings that had been pulled from the rubble and placed in a pile.

“For about three minutes, I could hear these people’s voices,” Niazi said. “But we couldn’t do anything. There were two or three of us, but this was not the work of three people.”

Neighbors quickly rushed to help, digging through the mud and rubble with shovels and their hands. They informed the local Taliban police checkpoint, which sent rescuers and ambulances.

The little boy, Arash, was taken out alive, but was injured and taken to hospital. Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman, who visited the boy on Saturday, said he was receiving treatment for a serious head injury.

As for the rest of the family – father, mother, four daughters aged between 12 and 23, and two sons – it is too late. Rescuers were only able to recover their bodies.

Niazi said he hosted the family at his home one night. On Friday, just half an hour before the quake, he renewed his offer, telling the family they could spend the night in his guest room to take shelter from the cold and rain. He said: But they did not come with me.

A series of deadly earthquakes

The epicenter of the earthquake that occurred on Friday night was in the Hindu Kush mountain range, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of the northern city of Kunduz, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Seismic Center and the US Geological Survey. The area is located about 290 kilometers (180 miles) northeast of Kabul.

Afghanistan is located in a very seismically active region of the world, and earthquakes have killed thousands in recent years.

Last August, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck a remote mountainous area in eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 2,200 people. Most of the casualties occurred in Kunar province, where people usually live in houses made of wood and mudbrick along steep valleys.

In November, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Samangan province in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 27 people and injuring more than 950 others. The earthquake also damaged historical sites, including Afghanistan’s famous Blue Mosque in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, and the Bagh-e-Jahan Nama Palace in Kholm.

On October 7, 2023, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake followed by strong aftershocks in western Afghanistan killed thousands of people.

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