2023-10-08 05:43:05
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Strong earthquakes in western Afghanistan have killed 2,000 people, an Afghan Taliban spokesman said Sunday.
The United Nations had earlier given a preliminary death toll of 320, but later said the figure was still being verified.
Mohammad Abdullah Jan said four villages in Zenda Jan district of Herat province were the worst affected by the earthquakes and followingshocks. Dozens of homes have been damaged.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported the magnitude 6.3 tremors. It stated that the epicenter was 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the city of Herat. There was an followingshock of magnitude 5.5.
A map posted on the USGS website indicates seven earthquakes in the area. At least five strong earthquakes shook the city around noon, Herat resident Abdul Shakor Samadi said.
“All the people are outside their houses,” Samadi said. “Houses, offices and shops are empty, and there are fears of more tremors. “My family and I were inside our house, I felt the earthquake.” Her family began screaming and ran outside, afraid to go back inside.
The World Health Organization in Afghanistan said it had sent 12 ambulances to Zenda Jan to transfer the wounded to hospitals.
“While deaths and casualties from the earthquake continue to be recorded, teams are in hospitals assisting in the treatment of the injured and assessing additional needs,” the WHO said on X, formerly Twitter. “WHO ambulances are transporting those affected, most of them women and children.”
Telephone connections were cut in Herat, making it difficult to obtain details of the affected areas. Videos spread on social networks showed hundreds of people in the streets, at the doors of their homes and offices in the city of Herat.
Herat province borders Iran. The earthquake was also felt in the nearby Afghan provinces of Farah and Badghis, local media reported.
Abdul Ghani Baradar, Taliban-appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Economy, expressed his condolences for the dead and wounded in Herat and Badghis.
The Taliban urged local organizations to reach the quake-affected areas as soon as possible to help transport the injured to hospital, provide shelter to the homeless and deliver food to survivors. He noted that security agencies should use all their resources and facilities to rescue people trapped under the rubble.
“We ask our rich compatriots to provide all possible cooperation and help to our distressed brothers,” the Taliban said in X.
In June 2022, a strong earthquake shook a mountainous and rugged region of eastern Afghanistan, leveling stone and mud houses. The quake was Afghanistan’s deadliest in two decades, causing at least 1,000 deaths and injuring regarding 1,500 people.
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