6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes eastern Afghanistan; more than 600 people killed, over 1,500 injured
More than 600 people have been killed and over 1,500 injured in the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan. Accurate casualty figures are still being gathered.
“The number of casualties and injuries is high, but since the area is difficult to access, our teams are still on site,” said health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman.
The epicenter was 27 kilometers from Jalalabad, Afghanistan's fifth largest city, at a depth of about 10 kilometers below the surface.
The earthquake, which struck around midnight, caused houses made of mud and stone to collapse. The tremor was felt as far as Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, about 400 kilometers away.
The quake affected remote mountainous areas where there is very limited mobile signal coverage and landslides have blocked roads.
The quake caused widespread damage in remote mountainous areas.
Hundreds of injured were taken to hospitals, said Najibullah Hanif, provincial information head, with figures likely to rise as reports arrived from remote areas with few roads. Rescuers are working in several districts where the midnight quake, which struck at a shallow depth of 10 km, levelled homes made of mud and stone near the border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region.
Initial reports confirmed 30 deaths in a single village and hundreds of injured were taken to hospital, officials said.
Relief workers were searching for survivors in areas bordering Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
"So far no foreign government has offered help with relief and rescue work," a Taliban foreign ministry spokesman said.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by deadly earthquakes, especially in the Hindukush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
In October 2023, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the country’s western province of Herat, killing nearly 1,500 people.
Its depth was also very shallow (about 14 kilometers), so it proved to be very destructive.
Afghanistan, located at the junction of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, is highly prone to earthquakes. The country’s mountainous terrain, especially in the east, makes rescue operations difficult.
A recent 6.3-magnitude quake in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces has caused nearly 250 deaths and over 500 injuries, followed by several aftershocks measuring 4.7, 4.3, and 5.0. Tremors were also felt in Pakistan’s Islamabad and Abbottabad.
Sitting on active fault lines, including the seismically active Hindu Kush range, Afghanistan remains extremely vulnerable to destructive quakes almost every year.