KABUL: A whole bunch have been feared useless and injured in an earthquake of magnitude 6 that struck Afghanistan’s rugged northeastern province of Kunar, authorities stated on Monday (Sep 1), as rescuers combed the rubble of houses in a hunt for survivors.
Early experiences confirmed 30 useless in a single village, the well being ministry stated, however added that correct casualty figures had but to be gathered in an space of scattered hamlets with an extended historical past of earthquakes and flooding.
“The variety of casualties and accidents is excessive, however because the space is troublesome to entry, our groups are nonetheless on web site,” well being ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman stated in a press release.
A whole bunch of injured have been taken to hospital, stated Najibullah Hanif, the provincial info head, with figures more likely to rise as experiences arrived from distant areas with few roads.
Rescuers have been working in a number of districts of the mountainous province the place the midnight quake hit at a depth of 10km, to degree houses of mud and stone on the border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area, officers stated.
Afghanistan is vulnerable to lethal earthquakes, significantly within the Hindu Kush mountain vary, the place the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
A collection of earthquakes in its west killed greater than 1,000 folks final yr, underscoring the vulnerability of one of many world’s poorest international locations to pure disasters.
