In the Afghan-Pakistani border region, there were violent tremors on Tuesday evening. The search for the victims continues.
The destruction was most devastating in Paktika province.
Reuters/dpa/nel. After the severe earthquake in the Afghan-Pakistani border region, the death toll has risen to 920, according to official figures. At least 600 other residents of the border provinces were injured in the quake late Tuesday evening (local time), Taliban Deputy Minister of State for Disaster Management, Maulawi Sharafuddin Muslim, said on Wednesday.
#breaking: The death toll from Tuesday night’s earthquake jumps to 920 people.
Deputy State Minister for Natural Disaster Management Mawlavi Sharfuddin Muslim in a press conference today said that 920 people were killed & 610 others injured in the quake.#earthquake #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/QE4rdesWFV— Bakhtar News Agency (@BakhtarNA) June 22, 2022
Most of the confirmed deaths were in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika, a Taliban government spokesman said. He spoke of dozens of houses destroyed in Paktika and Khost provinces. Afghan media reported that one village had been completely destroyed.
The rescue work was made more difficult by the access to the remote mountain region. The militant Islamist Taliban, who have ruled Afghanistan again since August 2021, called an emergency cabinet meeting. Several helicopters were sent to the disaster area to help local people. A government spokesman called on aid organizations for support. Helpers from the Red Crescent arrived on Wednesday.
The state news agency Bakhtar shows a government helicopter evacuating the injured from Paktika.
The information from regional seismic stations on the strength initially fluctuated. Pakistani authorities gave the earthquake late Tuesday evening (local time) with a magnitude of 6.1. The American Seismological Survey (USGS) reported magnitude 5.9 and a slightly weaker aftershock. Accordingly, the center of the earthquake was around 50 kilometers southwest of the city of Khost near the border with Pakistan at a depth of around ten kilometers.
According to Pakistani information, the tremors were felt in large parts of the country, in the capital Islamabad and even in Lahore in the east of the country. According to the civil protection authority, local emergency services tried to gain access to the affected remote mountainous region. The Pakistani side initially gave no information on damage and casualties.
Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate, the so-called Indian Plate, is pushing north on the Eurasian Plate. In 2015, Afghanistan’s remote north-east was hit by an earthquake, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan.