2023-10-15 05:40:45
Western Afghanistan has once once more been shaken by a severe earthquake within just a few days. According to the US Earthquake Observatory USGS, the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.3 on Sunday morning and occurred around 30 kilometers northwest of the city of Herat at a depth of six kilometers. Just a few minutes later, a second earthquake of magnitude 5.5 followed. Information on damage and injuries was initially not available.
Herat is located in the border province of the same name near Iran and is the second largest city in Afghanistan following Kabul. Multiple earthquakes killed nearly 2,500 people in the region last weekend, according to media reports citing official statistics. More than 2,000 people were injured. The UN emergency relief agency OCHA had put the death toll at more than 1,000.
There are frequent severe earthquakes in the region where the Arabian, Indian and Eurasian plates meet. A particularly devastating earthquake in Afghanistan killed more than 1,000 people in 2022. In the impoverished country, which has been marked by decades of bloody fighting, many houses are poorly built. Earthquakes therefore often cause great damage.
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