KABUL: A powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has killed at least 622 people and left over 1,500 injured, officials confirmed on Monday, as rescue teams rushed to find survivors and helicopters evacuated the wounded from collapsed villages.
The disaster adds to the struggles of a country already facing severe humanitarian challenges, including reduced foreign aid and the forced return of its citizens from neighboring states.
According to the Taliban-run interior ministry, the quake measured 6 in magnitude and struck at a depth of 10 km, causing widespread destruction in mud and stone houses across remote villages.
Earlier, state broadcaster RTA had reported about 500 deaths, while health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman warned that casualties could rise further, with preliminary reports from clinics already showing hundreds of injured and dozens of fatalities.
Helicopter footage captured by Reuters showed residents, soldiers, and medics carrying the injured to ambulances as entire villages lay in ruins.
The health ministry said three villages in Kunar province were destroyed, with significant damage reported in others.
Provincial official Najibullah Hanif noted that early counts showed 250 deaths and 500 injuries in Kunar alone, though numbers were still being updated.
One village reported 30 deaths, with hundreds of survivors taken to hospitals for treatment. Rescuers continue to search through rubble in areas bordering Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the region’s worst hit.
“So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work,” a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s foreign office confirmed.
The country is highly vulnerable to such disasters, lying in the seismically active Hindu Kush region where tectonic plates collide.
Just last year, western Afghanistan was hit by a series of earthquakes that killed over 1,000 people, underscoring the fragility of one of the poorest nations in the world.