Afghanistan Earthquake Death Toll Reportedly Reaches 1,500
The number of people killed in an earthquake that hit Afghanistan’s Paktika and Khost provinces early yesterday morning has reached 1,500, Al Jazeera reported, citing an official of the ruling Taliban.
According to him, the quake left over 2,000 people injured.
Meanwhile, the BBC, citing the Taliban official, reported yesterday morning that a powerful earthquake has killed at least 1,000 people and injured 1,500 in eastern Afghanistan.
The Taliban appealed for international help for the rescue effort as pictures showed landslides and ruined mud-built homes in the province of Paktika.
The quake struck shortly yesterday after 01:30 am as people slept.
Hundreds of houses were destroyed by the magnitude 6.1 event, which occurred at a depth of 51 kilometers.
It is Afghanistan’s deadliest quake in two decades.
In 2015, an earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan.
It is to be noted that large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.