36.1 C
Delhi
Friday, March 29, 2024

Over 1,000 killed, 1500 injured after 6.1 earthquake rocks Afghanistan

AsiaOver 1,000 killed, 1500 injured after 6.1 earthquake rocks Afghanistan

Over 1,000 people were killed in Afghanistan, and 1500 injured after a 6.1 massive earthquake on the Richter scale rocked Afghanistan.

There were an estimated 1,000 killed and 1,500 others injured after a magnitude 5.9 earthquake rocked remote parts of eastern Afghanistan in Paktika and neighbouring Pakistan.  The epicentre of the tremor was about 46km (27 miles) from the City of Khost, near the Pakistani border, the USGS said.

“People are digging grave after grave,” said Muhammad Amin Huzaifa, head of the Information and Culture Department in hard-hit Paktika.

“It is raining also, and all houses are destroyed. People are still trapped under the rubble,” he told journalists. Yaqub Manzor, a tribal leader from Paktika region said survivors were mobilising to help those affected.  Yaqub Manzor, a tribal leader from Paktika province, said survivors were mobilising to help those affected.

The local markets are closed and all the people have rushed to the affected areas it is reported.

The death toll from a powerful earthquake in Afghanistan has climbed to 1,000, with more than 1,500 others wounded, according to the Taliban’s Culture and Information Department, as rescuers try to reach the site of the disaster in remote Paktika and Khost provinces.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the magnitude of the earthquake in the early hours of Wednesday was 5.9, revising an initial estimate at 6.1.

Footage from the Paktika region showed victims being carried into helicopters to be airlifted from the area. Images widely circulating online from the province showed destroyed homes, with residents going through the rubble.

Afghan journalist Ali M Latifi, reporting from Kabul, said people as far as the Afghan capital, some 200km (124 miles) away, felt the aftershocks.

Authorities are reporting hundreds of houses have been destroyed in the region, which has not seen a lot of development, Latifi said.

“The international rescue committee said they have deployed a local medical team to try and respond to the disaster.

“The biggest issue is how to reach the sites because they are further away from the provincial capitals, and the road conditions could be difficult. So really the issue is how long it’s going to take them to get there,” the Afghan journalist said.

It is tragic that Afghanistan is already suffering an economic crisis, with little access to basic needs and medical facilities and the earthquake intensifies the country’s economic crisis.

Strong shocks were also felt in Pakistan and  Iran with no instant of damage or casualties in the two countries.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a statement offered his condolences over the earthquake, saying his nation will provide help to the Afghan people and said, “We hope that the International Community & aid agencies will also help our people in this dire situation.”

The United Nations and European Union also offered help.  “Inter-agency assessment teams have already been deployed to a number of affected areas,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Afghanistan tweeted.

Tomas Niklasson, the EU special envoy for Afghanistan, tweeted: “The EU is monitoring the situation and stands ready to coordinate and provide EU emergency assistance to people and communities affected.”

Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund convened an emergency meeting at the Presidential Palace to coordinate the relief effort for victims.

The UN resident coordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, expressed condolences to the victims and said that the world body’s agencies were responding to the earthquake’s devastation.

“Response is on its way,” he wrote on Twitter.

Afghanistan is prone to quakes, as it’s located in a tectonically active region, over a number of fault lines including the Chaman fault, the Hari Rud fault, the Central Badakhshan fault, and the Darvaz fault.

Check out our other content

Check out other tags:

Most Popular Articles