KABUL, Afghanistan – At least 1,000 people have been killed and more than 1,500 injured in a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck a remote and mountainous region of southeastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan early Wednesday, the state news agency Bakhtar reported. The quake struck about 28 miles southwest of Khost, the southeastern provincial capital, according to the United States Geological Survey, and was about six miles deep. Raees Hozaifa, director of information and culture in the eastern province of Paktika, said the quake was felt in many provinces. Some of the quake-hit areas are in a remote, rugged country near the border with Pakistan that was the scene of heavy fighting before and after the Taliban invasion of Afghanistan, and telecommunications are inadequate or non-existent, making it difficult the full account of the victims. A humanitarian official said he expected the death toll to be much higher. Mohammad Almas, head of aid and relief at Qamar, an Afghanistan-based charity based in the region, said he expected the death toll to be high as the area was far from hospitals and because the quake struck at night when most people were sleeping indoors. As many as 17 members of the same family were killed in a village when their house collapsed, he said. only one child survived. He said more than 25 villages were almost completely destroyed, including schools, mosques and houses. The quake killed at least 40 people and injured 90 others in the Sperach area of Khost province, northeast of Paktika province, said Sabir Ahmad Osmani, director of information and culture at Khost province. Rafiullah Rahel, head of the health department in Paktika province, said 381 people had been killed and 205 injured in the province. It was not immediately clear whether the data provided by provincial officials were early estimates or whether large numbers of victims had been recorded elsewhere. The Bakhtar news agency posted a video on Twitter of a helicopter landing in what it said was an earthquake-stricken area. He said ambulances were transporting the injured to hospitals. Sarhadi Khosti, 26, who lives in the Spera district, said he had woken up to the quake after 1 a.m. and that some houses – especially those made of dirt or wood – had been completely destroyed. He said helicopters were transporting some of the injured to hospitals in Kabul and neighboring provinces. “At the moment, we are still busy dragging the dead or injured under the rubble,” he said. Evacuation of a wounded person in the province of Paktika.Credit … Bakhtar News Agency, through the Associated Press Dr Ramiz Alakbarov, Afghanistan’s deputy special envoy to the United Nations, wrote on Twitter that the agency was assessing the situation after the quake. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said on Twitter that the organization would “continue to support people in need across the country.” The quake struck about 300 miles northeast of the site of a deadly 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan in 2008, according to the USGS. More than 200 people were killed at that time. The quake affected Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and the entire northern part of neighboring Pakistan, according to a map posted on its website by the European Mediterranean Seismological Center. The USGS said a second quake, measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, struck about 30 miles southwest of Khost about an hour later. An image provided by the United States Geological Survey shows the site of the quake, which struck about 28 miles southwest of Khost in Paktika.Credit … / EPA, via Shutterstock For the people of Afghanistan, earthquakes are another danger in a country wounded by decades of war. Many of the country’s densely populated cities and towns are located on or near various geological faults, some of which can cause earthquakes of up to 7 Richter. The quake on Wednesday, according to the USGS, appeared to be caused by movement between the tectonic plates of India and Eurasia. The agency said in a 2022 report that more than 7,000 people have died in earthquakes in the past decade, an average of 560 people a year. In the area between Kabul and Jalalabad, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale is estimated to have affected seven million people. In January, two earthquakes shook a remote, mountainous region of western Afghanistan, killing at least 27 people and destroying hundreds of homes, officials said. Another earthquake in 2015 killed more than 300 people in northern Afghanistan and Pakistan and destroyed thousands of homes. Safiullah Padshah reported from Kabul, Afghanistan and Mike Ives from Seoul. Isabella Kwai and Emma Bubola contributed to the report from London and Salman Masood from Islamabad, Pakistan. – Safiullah Padshah and Mike Ives
