A powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing 1,000 people and injuring 1,500 others, according to a state-run news agency. Officials warned that the already dire toll was likely to rise.
Information about a magnitude 6.1 earthquake near the Pakistani border was scarce, but an earthquake of that strength could cause severe damage in an area where houses and other buildings are poorly constructed and landslides are common. Experts put the depth at just 10 kilometers (6 mi) – another factor that could have amplified the impact.
The disaster posed a major test for the Taliban-led government, which seized power last year as the US plans to pull out of the country and end its longest war, two decades after 9/11. After toppling the same rebels in the wake of the attacks.
Rescue teams arrived in the area by helicopter on Wednesday, but many international aid agencies left Afghanistan after the Taliban took over, so the response is likely to be complicated.
Neighboring Pakistan’s Meteorological Department said the epicenter of the quake was in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the city of Khost. Buildings were also damaged in Khost province, and the tremors were felt as far as Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.
Footage from Paktika showed people in blankets carrying people to helicopters. Others were treated on the ground. One resident could be seen receiving IV fluids while sitting on a plastic chair outside the rubble of his home with still more necks stretched out. Some images show residents lifting mud bricks and other debris from destroyed stone houses, some of which had collapsed roofs or walls.
The death toll given by the Bakhtar news agency was comparable to the 2002 earthquake in northern Afghanistan, which struck the Taliban government shortly after the US-led invasion. They are the deadliest since 1998, when at least 4,500 people were killed in a 6.1-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks in Afghanistan’s far northeast.
Seismologist Robert Sanders of the US Geological Survey said that in most places in the world, an earthquake of such intensity would not cause such widespread destruction. But the death toll from earthquakes often comes down to geography, building quality and population density.
“Because of the mountainous area, there are rocks and landslides that we won’t know until we report later. Older buildings are likely to collapse and fail,” he said. The reason being, we have seen similar earthquakes in the past that cause significant damage.”
Earlier, Abdul Wahid Ryan, director general of the state-run Bakhtar news agency, wrote on Twitter that 90 houses were destroyed in Paktika and dozens were buried under the rubble. He said the Afghan Red Crescent Society has sent around 4,000 blankets, 800 tents and 800 kitchen kits to the affected area.
In Kabul, Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund called an emergency meeting at Rashtrapati Bhavan to coordinate relief efforts, and Bilal Karimi, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, wrote on Twitter to urge aid agencies to send teams to the region.
“The response is ongoing,” Ramiz Alkabarov, the UN’s Resident Coordinator in Afghanistan, wrote on Twitter.
This could prove difficult, given the situation in which Afghanistan finds itself today. After the Taliban swept the country in 2021, the US military and its allies fell back at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport and later withdrew altogether. Many international humanitarian organizations followed suit due to concerns about security and the Taliban’s poor human rights record.
Since that time, the Taliban have worked with Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates on resuming airport operations in Kabul and across the country – but almost all international carriers still avoid the country, and aid organizations have sought support from the country. reluctance on the part. Flying in money supplies and equipment into Taliban coffers can be difficult.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, in a statement, expressed his condolences over the earthquake, saying his country would help. At the Vatican, Pope Francis prayed for all those killed and wounded and for the “suffering of the beloved Afghan population”.
At least 25 people were killed and more than 95 injured in the quake in just one district of Khost province, local officials said.
Taimur Khan, a disaster management spokesman for the region, said there were reports of damage to homes near the Afghan border in some remote areas of Pakistan, but it was not immediately clear whether it was caused by rain or an earthquake.
The European Seismological Agency, EMSC, said the tremors were felt more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) by 119 million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Large areas of South Asia, along with mountainous Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush mountains, have long been vulnerable to devastating earthquakes.