A magnitude 6 earthquake struck the rugged eastern region of Afghanistan, destroying villages, killing over 600 people, and injuring over 1,500 others, according to a spokesperson of the Taliban government.
The quake hit a series of towns in the province of Kunar, near the city of Jalalabad in neighboring Nangahar province, causing massive damage late Sunday.
Footage from the scene that surfaced online showed people in Nangarhar hastily crawling through wreckage with their hands in the middle of the night, searching for loved ones. The injured were stretchered out of collapsed buildings and loaded into helicopters.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the quake was centered 17 miles (27 kilometers) east-northeast of the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province at 11:47 p.m. local time, and it was 5 miles (8 kilometers) deep.
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According to Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Matin Qani, 610 people were confirmed dead and 1,300 others were injured in Kunar, and a dozen people also lost their lives in Nangarhar and hundreds more were injured.
Many houses and other properties were also destroyed. Some of the villages were entirely destroyed.
One villager from Nurgal district, one of the worst-affected areas in Kunar, said, “Children are under the rubble. The elderly are under the rubble. Young people are under the rubble.”
He pleaded that “We need help here.” “We need people to come here and join us. Let us pull out the people who are buried. There is no one who can come and remove dead bodies from under the rubble.”
According to a spokesman for the health ministry, Sharafat Zaman, rescue operations are underway with medical officials from Kunar, Nangarhar and the capital, Kabul, arriving in the area.
He added that many areas have not been able to report the casualty figures and that “the numbers were expected to change” as more reports are flowing in.
The chief spokesperson of the Taliban government, Zabihullah Mujahid, said, “All available resources will be utilized to save lives.”
