- Early reports show 30 dead in a single village: Ministry of Health.
- The number of injuries and injuries is large, says the Ministry’s SPOX.
- The figures that are likely to rise when reports arrive from remote areas.
Kabul: Hundreds were feared dead and wounded after an earthquake with magnitude-6 hit two robust Eastern provinces in Afghanistan, the authorities said on Monday, when helicopters ferryed the wounded to security from rubble that was combed in a hunt for survivors.
Reports showed 250 dead and 500 wounded, said Najibullah Hanif, the province’s head of information for Kunar, adding that the mood could change.
The disaster will further stretch the resources of the South Asian nation, which is already struggling with humanitarian crises, from a sharp fall in helping a huge pushback of its citizens from neighboring countries.
There was no confirmed death toll, said the health authorities in Kabul, the capital as rescuers were driving to reach remote villages that dotted an area with a long history of earthquakes and floods.
“Tall from only a few clinics shows over 400 wounded and dozens of deaths,” spokesman for the Ministry of Sharafat Zaman said in a statement warning of higher losses.
Photos from Reuters -TV showed helicopters that ferry the affected, while the residents helped soldiers and medicine carry the wounded to ambulances.
Three villages were razed in the province of Kunar with significant damage in many others, the Ministry of Health said.
Early reports showed 30 dead in a single village, with hundreds of the wound taken to the hospital, authorities said.
Rescuers encrypted to find survivors in the area bordering Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, where houses of mud and stone were corrected by the midnight quake that hit a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
“So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work,” a foreign office spokesman said.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
A number of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, emphasizing the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest countries to natural disasters.
