Hundreds feared dead, injured as magnitude 6 earthquake hits Afghanistan

Hundreds are feared dead and injured in a earthquake of magnitude 6 that struck Afghanistan’s rugged northeastern province of Kunar, authorities say, as rescuers comb the rubble of homes in a hunt for survivors.

Early reports show 0 dead in a single village, the health ministry says, but adds that accurate casualty figures had yet to be gathered in an area of scattered hamlets with a long history of earthquakes and flooding.

“The number of casualties and injuries is high, but since the area is difficult to access, our teams are still on site,” health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman says in a statement.

Hundreds of injured were taken to hospital, says Najibullah Hanif, the provincial information head, with figures likely to rise as reports arrive from remote areas with few roads.

Rescuers are working in several districts of the mountainous province where the midnight quake hit at a depth of 10 km (6 miles), to level homes of mud and stone on the border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, officials said.

Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, underscoring the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest countries to natural disasters.