Hundreds Feared Killed As Earthquake Strikes Eastern Afghanistan

Hundreds of people are feared dead after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, with the toll expected to grow as information trickles in from remote mountain villages.

The tremor shook the Kunar and Nangahar provinces at about midnight local time on Monday (19:30 GMT, Sunday), local sources told Al Jazeera, with significant damage reported across several districts in the mountainous regions.

The Anadolu news agency meanwhile cited Afghanistan’s Information Ministry as saying that more than 250 people were killed and 500 injured in the quake.

The casualties were reported in Nur Gal, Sawki, Watpur, Manogi and Chapa Dara districts of Kunar province, it said.

The United States Geological Survey said the 6.0 magnitude quake was centred 27km (17 miles) east of the city of Jalalabad in the Nangahar province. It happened at a depth of just 8km (5 miles).

A short while later, another 4.5 magnitude tremor occurred near Basawul in Nangahar.

Al Jazeera’s Mohsin Momand, reporting from Kabul, said aftershocks were felt into the morning.

“The epicentre of the quake was recorded in Kunar province. Entire villages in Kunar province have been badly hit. And the government says emergency teams are being deployed from Kabul and nearby provinces. Officials here are pledging to use all available resources to rescue people and support affected families,” he said.

The effect of the quake was felt in neighbouring Pakistan, too.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from the Lahore, said people in vast areas of Pakistan, including in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, were jolted awake late at night because of the tremor.

He said the devastation from the earthquake was likely to be high in Afghanistan as it had struck at a shallow depth.

Experts, meanwhile, say the affected area is in a region prone to large earthquakes.

It is an area that “also has quite a high population density and an area that’s very mountainous”, meaning that earthquakes there often also trigger landslides, he said.

In October 2023, an earthquake struck western Afghanistan, killing at least 2,400 people, according to the government there.