Kabul: More than 600 people have lost their lives and over 1500 others sustained injuries after a powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan, officials said.
The 6.0 magnitude quake late Sunday hit towns in the province of Kunar, near the city of Jalalabad in neighbouring Nangarhar province, destroying numerous villages and causing extensive damage.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the quake’s epicenter was located about 17 miles from Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border, and occurred around midnight local time (3:30 p.m. ET Sunday).
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Matin Qani confirmed the casualty figures to the Associated Press, saying the late-night quake killed 610 people and injured 1,300 in Kunar. Many houses were destroyed.
Afghanistan lies on several active fault lines, making it highly prone to earthquakes. The country’s rugged terrain and frequent landslides further complicate rescue and relief operations.
The earthquake was Afghanistan’s deadliest since June 2022, when tremors of magnitude 6.1 killed at least 1,000 people.
A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, underscoring the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest countries to natural disasters.
