Photo provided by the Bakhtar state news agency of the devastation caused by an earthquake in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday. Credit … Bakhtar Agency, through the Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – At least 1,000 people have been killed and more than 1,500 injured in a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that shook a remote and mountainous region of southeastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan early Wednesday, the Bakhtar news agency reported.
The quake was about 28 miles southwest of Host, a provincial capital in the southeastern part of the country, the United States Geological Survey said, and was about six miles deep. Rais Hosaifa, director of information and culture in the eastern province of Paktika, said the quake was felt in several provinces.
Some of the areas affected by the quake are in a remote heavy country near the Pakistani border, which was the scene of heavy fighting before and after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and telecommunications are poor or non-existent, making it difficult to get a full victim accountability. A humanitarian official said he expected the death toll to be much higher.
Mohammad Almas, head of relief and appeals at Qamar, a charity in Afghanistan operating in the area, said he expects the death toll to be high as the area is far from hospitals and because the quake occurred at night when most people were sleeping indoors.
About 17 members of the same family were killed in a village when their home collapsed, he said; only one child survived. He said more than 25 villages were almost completely destroyed, including schools, mosques and homes.
In the Spera district of Hosta province, northeast of Paktika province, the quake killed at least 40 people and injured 90 others, Shabir Ahmad Osmani, Hosta’s provincial director of information and culture, said by telephone.
Rafiula Rachel, head of the health department in Paktika province, said 381 people had died and 205 had been injured in the province.
An image provided by the United States Geological Survey shows the location of the quake, which was centered about 28 miles southwest of Host, in the province of Paktika.
It was not immediately clear whether the data provided by the provincial authorities were early estimates or whether a large number of victims were registered elsewhere.
The Bakhtar news agency posted a video on Twitter of a helicopter landing in the area it said was affected by the quake. It is stated that ambulances transport the wounded to hospitals.
Sarhadi Hosti, 26, who lives in the Spera district, said he was awakened by the quake after 1 a.m. and that a number of houses – especially those made of earth or wood – had been completely destroyed. He said helicopters had transported some of the wounded to hospitals in Kabul and neighboring provinces.
“For now, we are still busy taking the dead or the wounded out of the rubble,” he said.
Dr Ramiz Alakbarov, Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan to the United Nations, wrote on Twitter that the organization was assessing the situation after the earthquake. Dr Tedros Adanom Gebrejesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said on Twitter that the agency “will continue to support people in need across the country.”
The quake struck about 300 miles northeast of the site of a deadly 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan in 2008, the USGS reported. More than 200 people were reported killed at the time.
The quake affected Kabul, the Afghan capital, and northern Pakistan, according to a map published by the European Mediterranean Seismological Center on its website. The USGS reported that a second 4.5 magnitude earthquake struck about 30 miles southwest of Host about an hour later.
Safiula Padshah reports from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Mike Ives from Seoul. Isabella Kwai and Emma Bubola contributed to reports from London and Salman Masood from Islamabad, Pakistan.
– Safiula Padshah and Mike Ives
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