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At least 26 people have been killed and hundreds of homes damaged in Badghis province following a 5.3 magnitude earthquake.
Rescue workers are surviving after an earthquake in a remote region of western Afghanistan killed at least 26 people and damaged hundreds of homes, authorities said.
Monday’s 5.3 magnitude earthquake shook Badghis province and destroyed hundreds of homes, mostly in the rural district of Qadis, which is easily accessible by road.
“Between 700 and 1,000 homes have been affected by the quake, with about 700 people affected,” said Baz Mohammad Sarwary, a spokesman for Badghis province, in a video message.
“There’s a chance the dead will rise.”
Images circulating on social media showed neighbors, including children, looking for things and essentials among the rubble of collapsed homes.
Taliban government spokesman Inamullah Samangani said rescue workers were being helped to the scene and that the wounded were being taken to local hospitals.
There was a Taliban team assisting in the field.
Some of the victims, including women and children, were killed when the roofs of their homes collapsed, authorities said.
The quake also caused damage to residents of the Muqr neighborhood, but details, including the victims, are not yet available.
Epicenter
The epicenter of the quake was near Qala-i-Naw, near the capital Badghis, less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Turkmenistan border, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Afghanistan is already suffering from a humanitarian catastrophe as the freezing of international aid and access to foreign goods by Western countries has deteriorated since the Taliban took over the country in August.
The United Nations says it needs $ 5 billion in 2022 to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan and provide a future for the ruined nation after 40 years of war and occupation.
A severe drought has exacerbated the crisis, with Qadis being one of the worst-hit areas in the country.
Afghanistan is often affected by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush Mountains, which are close to the intersection of tectonic plates in Eurasia and India.
Weak earthquakes can also cause severe damage to poorly built homes and buildings in the impoverished country.
In 2015, nearly 280 people were killed when a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake shook South Asia, the largest death toll in Pakistan.
In this disaster, 12 young Afghan girls were killed in a crash while trying to escape from the trembling school building.
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