Kabul:

More than 2,400 people were killed in earthquakes in Afghanistan, the Taliban administration said on Sunday, in the deadliest tremors to rock the quake-prone mountainous country in years.

The Saturday quakes in the west of the country hit 35 km (20 miles) northwest of the city of Herat, with one of 6.3 magnitude, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

They were among the world’s deadliest quakes this year, after tremors in Turkey and Syria killed an estimated 50,000 in February.

Janan Sayeeq, spokesman for the Ministry of Disasters, said in a message to Reuters that the toll had risen to 2,445 dead, but he revised down the number of injured to “more than 2,000”. Earlier, he had said that 9,240 people had been injured.

Sayeeq also said 1,320 houses had been damaged or destroyed. The death count spiked from 500 reported earlier on Sunday by the Red Crescent.

Ten rescue teams were in the area, which borders Iran, Sayeeq told a press conference.

More than 200 dead had been brought to various hospitals, said a Herat health department official who identified himself as Dr Danish, adding most of them were women and children.

Bodies had been “taken to several places – military bases, hospitals”, Danish said.

Beds were set up outside the main hospital in Herat to receive a flood of victims, photos on social media showed.

Food, drinking water, medicine, clothes and tents were urgently needed for rescue and relief, Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban political office in Qatar, said in a message to the media.

The medieval minarets of Herat sustained some damage, photographs on social media showed, with cracks visible and tiles fallen off.

Hemmed in by mountains, Afghanistan has a history of strong earthquakes, many in the rugged Hindu Kush region bordering Pakistan.

Death count often rise when information comes in from more remote parts of a country where decades of war have left infrastructure in a shambles, and relief and rescue operations difficult to organise.

Afghanistan’s healthcare system, reliant almost entirely on foreign aid, has faced crippling cuts in the two years since the Taliban took over and much international assistance, which had formed the backbone of the economy, was halted.

Diplomats and aid officials say concerns over Taliban restrictions on women and competing global humanitarian crises are causing donors to pull back on financial support. The Islamist government has ordered most Afghan female aid staff not to work, although with exemptions in health and education.

In August, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was likely to end its financial support for 25 Afghan hospitals because of funding constraints. It was not immediately clear if the Herat hospital was on that list.

The quakes triggered panic in Herat, resident Naseema said.

“People left their houses, we all are on the streets,” she wrote in a text message to Reuters on Saturday, adding that the city was feeling aftershocks.

There are a total of 202 public health facilities in Herat province, one of which is the major regional hospital where 500 casualties had been taken, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report on Sunday.

A vast majority of the facilities are smaller basic health centres and logistical challenges were hindering operations, particularly in remote areas, the WHO said.

“While search and rescue operations remain ongoing, casualties in these areas have not yet been fully identified,” it said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit western Afghanistan on October 7 killing 14 and injuring 78, an official said, with predictions the toll could rise after reports of landslides and victims trapped under collapsed buildings.

The United States Geological Survey said the epicentre was 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of the region’s largest city of Herat, and was followed by seven aftershocks with magnitudes between 4.6 and 6.3.

Crowds of residents fled buildings in the city at around 11:00 a.m. (0630 GMT) as the quakes began, lasting for over an hour.

“We were in our offices and suddenly the building started shaking,” 45-year-old Herat resident Bashir Ahmad told AFP. “Wall plasters started to fall down and the walls got cracks, some walls and parts of the building collapsed.”

“I am not able to contact my family, network connections are disconnected. I am too worried and scared, it was horrifying,” he said.

Women and children stood out in the wide streets, away from tall buildings, in the moments after the first quake.

Public health director of Herat province Mohammad Taleb Shahid told AFP 14 people were killed and 78 injured, but said he feared the tally would rise.

“These are the numbers that have been brought to the central hospital so far, but this is not the final figure,” he said. “We have information that people are buried under rubble.”

Hundreds of fatalities were possible, according to a USGS preliminary report.

“Significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread. Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response,” it said.

USGS had earlier reported the first quake’s magnitude as 6.2. It had a shallow depth of just 14 kilometres, it said.

“In the rural and mountainous areas there have been landslides”, disaster management authority spokesman Mullah Jan Sayeq told AFP.

‘Disaster potentially widespread’

Herat — 120 kilometres east of the border with Iran — is considered the cultural capital of Afghanistan.

It is the capital of Herat province which is home to an estimated population of 1.9 million, according to 2019 World Bank data.

The country is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

In June last year, more than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake — the deadliest in Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century — struck the impoverished province of Paktika.

In March of this year, 13 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by a magnitude 6.5 quake, which hit near Jurm in northeastern Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is already in the grip of a grinding humanitarian crisis, following the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Herat:

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit western Afghanistan on Saturday causing 14 deaths and injuring 78, officials said, predicting the count could rise amid reports of landslides and building collapses.

The United States Geological Survey said the epicentre was 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of the region’s largest city of Herat and was followed by five aftershocks with magnitudes of 5.5, 4.7, 6.3, 5.9 and 4.6.

Crowds of residents and shopkeepers fled buildings in the city at around 11:00 am (0630 GMT) as the quakes began, causing 25 injuries and a single fatality, according to a Taliban government spokesman.

“We were in our offices and suddenly the building started shaking,” 45-year-old Herat resident Bashir Ahmad told AFP. “Wall plasters started to fall down and the walls got cracks. Some walls and parts of the building collapsed.”

“I am not able to contact my family, network connections are disconnected. I am too worried and scared, it was horrifying,” he said.

National Disaster Management Authority spokesman Mullah Jan Sayeq told AFP the initial count was “preliminary” and he feared it would rise as “in the rural and mountainous areas there have been landslides as well”.

“Currently, we don’t have all the information and details,” he said.

“Disaster potentially widespread”

Crowds of women and children stood out in the wide streets of Herat, away from tall buildings, in the moments after the first quake and aftershocks which continued for over an hour.

Hundreds of fatalities were possible, according to a USGS preliminary report.

“Significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread. Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response,” it said.

USGS had earlier reported the first quake’s magnitude as 6.2. It had a shallow depth of just 14 kilometres, it said.

Herat – 120 kilometres east of the border with Iran – is considered the cultural capital of Afghanistan.

It is the capital of Herat province which is home to an estimated population of 1.9 million, according to 2019 World Bank data.

In June last year, over 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands made homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake — the deadliest in Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century — struck the impoverished province of Paktika.

In March of this year, 13 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by a magnitude 6.5 quake, which hit near Jurm in northeastern Afghanistan.

The country is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

Afghanistan is already in a grinding humanitarian crisis, following the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)