PESHAWAR, Pakistan — No less than 250 individuals have been killed and over 500 have been injured in Afghanistan after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit the nation on Monday, Taliban officers mentioned.
The earthquake struck 17 miles from the town of Jalalabad close to the border with Pakistan round midnight native time (3:30 p.m. ET Sunday), in keeping with the U.S. Geological Survey.
As a result of the earthquake hit a distant mountainous space, “it can take time to get the precise details about human losses and harm to the infrastructure,” mentioned Sharafat Zaman, a spokesperson for the Afghan Public Well being Ministry.
“Now we have launched a large rescue operation and mobilized lots of of individuals to assist individuals within the affected areas,” Zaman mentioned.
Afghanistan is very liable to earthquakes because it sits on high of a number of fault strains the place the Indian and Eurasian plates meet. The mountainous terrain of japanese Afghanistan can also be liable to landslides, making it more durable for emergency providers to hold out rescues.
This quake was particularly devastating because it hit at a shallow depth of 5 miles, making it way more harmful even at average magnitude.
Round 1,000 individuals have been killed and hundreds extra have been injured in 2022 when a 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit japanese Afghanistan.
That, too, was a shallow quake.
Mushtaq Yusufzai reported from Peshawar and Mithil Aggarwal from Hong Kong.
It is a growing story. Please verify again for updates.
