Afghanistan earthquake death toll rises to 2,200

Another 3,640 radical person been wounded successful the magnitude 6 quake that struck connected Sunday arsenic assistance organizations conflict to scope survivors.

Rescuers person recovered hundreds of bodies from mountainous areas of southeastern Afghanistan, which was deed by a large earthquake astatine the weekend, taking the decease toll to much than 2,200, according to a Taliban authorities spokesperson.

Previous estimates said immoderate 1,400 radical were killed. Taliban spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said connected Thursday that the updated decease toll was 2,205 and that hunt and rescue efforts were continuing.

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“Tents person been acceptable up for people, and the transportation of archetypal assistance and exigency supplies is ongoing,” Fitrat said.

Another 3,640 radical person been injured successful the magnitude 6 quake connected Sunday and a consequent magnitude 5.5 quake connected Tuesday, the Taliban said, with the United Nations informing the decease toll could emergence arsenic much radical are inactive trapped nether rubble, peculiarly successful the worst-hit provinces of Kunar.

“What we’re seeing connected the crushed is utter devastation, a existent catastrophe,” John Aylieff, state manager for World Food Programme Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera connected Thursday. “We person houses razed to the ground.”

Most of the casualties person been successful Kunar province, wherever radical typically unrecorded successful wood and mud-brick houses on steep stream valleys separated by precocious mountains.

More than 6,700 homes person been destroyed, authorities person said. Survivors are sifting done debris successful their hunt for loved ones. The unsmooth terrain is hindering alleviation efforts.

Taliban authorities person deployed helicopters and airdropped service commandos to assistance survivors. Aid workers person reported walking for hours to scope villages chopped disconnected by landslides and rockfall.

Obaidullah Stoman, 26, who travelled to the colony of Wadir successful Kunar’s Nugral territory to hunt for a friend, told the AFP quality bureau that determination was “only rubble left”.

“I’m searching here, but I didn’t spot him. It was precise hard for maine to spot the conditions here,” helium said.

Akhlaq, 14, who was injured and evacuated to the hospital, mislaid 5 members of his household to the earthquake successful the distant village.

“We cannot accurately foretell however galore bodies mightiness inactive beryllium trapped nether the rubble,” said Ehsanullah Ehsan, the caput of catastrophe absorption for eastbound Afghanistan’s Kunar region.

The World Food Programme has lone capable supplies to past for a fewer weeks, Aylieff warned connected Thursday, saying rescue teams are experiencing trouble reaching distant villages affected by the earthquakes.

“Even our off-the-road trucks cannot get through, truthful we’re utilizing each means possible, tiny pick-ups, battalion animals, and adjacent successful immoderate cases, villagers are coming down and carrying nutrient backmost to the communities,” helium told Al Jazeera.

[Al Jazeera]

Afghanistan was struck by 1 of the deadliest earthquakes successful caller times conscionable earlier midnight connected Sunday. It was a shallow, with its epicentre astatine a extent of astir 8 kilometres (five miles).

Afghanistan has experienced devastating earthquakes successful the past owed to its determination astatine the constituent wherever the Indian and Eurasian plates converge.

More than 2,000 radical were killed successful the occidental state of Herat successful the country’s deadliest earthquake successful October 2023. A twelvemonth before, 1,000 radical were killed aft a magnitude 6.1 earthquake deed the eastbound provinces of Paktika, Paktia, Khost, and Nangarhar.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies