At a Glance
- At least 1,000 people are dead after an earthquake in eastern Afghanistan.
- At least 1,500 others are injured.
- The 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck in the middle of the night when many were sleeping.
At least 2,000 homes were destroyed by a powerful earthquake that left thousands of people dead and injured in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday.
The USGS said the 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck at around 1:24 am local time some 29 miles southwest of Khost, Afghanistan, near the country's eastern border with Pakistan. The quake's epicenter is around 100 miles southeast of the country's capital, Kabul. The earthquake was also felt in neighboring India and Pakistan.
At least 1,000 people were killed and 1,500 others injured, The Associated Press reported.
By Wednesday evening, there was still limited information coming from the area. Relief efforts were being hampered by the remote location, geopolitical tensions and roads damaged by recent rain and landslides, among other factors.
Little is known about the immediate rescue efforts. Bakhtar, the official government news agency of Afghanistan, reported that an emergency blood drive had been launched. Video posted by the agency showed people searching through the rubble with their bare hands.
The earthquake was particularly damaging because it was relatively shallow, at just over 6 miles deep. That, coupled with it striking when many were still asleep made it particularly deadly.
That was the case in the two hardest-hit provinces of Paktika and Khost, officials said. Hundreds were dead and many others injured in Paktika alone.
Disaster management chief Maulawi Sharafuddin Muslim said that “some villages have been completely destroyed,” according to the Washington Post. Images and videos from hard-hit areas showed stone structures completely crumbled.
The Taliban government was using helicopters to evacuate the wounded to hospitals, CNN said.
Aid missions will likely be complicated by geopolitical tensions since the Taliban took over the country a year ago. Many governments don't recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government and most aid organizations left the country.
Still, Taliban representatives said they welcomed aid from outside the country and the UN pledged support.
This is the deadliest earthquake since more than 2,200 people died in a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti in August of 2021. It's the deadliest earthquake to hit Afghanistan since 2002 when nearly 1,000 people died in a 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported.
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