A powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan at the weekend killed more than 1,400 and injured 3,000 others, the Taliban government said on Tuesday, September 2—making it one of the deadliest to hit the country in decades.
The casualty toll has mounted steadily since the 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit late Sunday night, devastating remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan.
In a post on X, chief Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday that 1,411 people were killed and 3,124 people were injured in the hard-hit province of Kunar alone.
Another dozen people were killed and hundreds injured in neighbouring Nangarhar province.
The earthquake could impact “hundreds of thousands,” said United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan Indrika Ratwatte.
Rescuers were still desperately searching on Tuesday for survivors in the rubble of homes flattened in Kunar.
Some of the hardest-hit villages remain inaccessible due to blocked roads, the UN migration agency told AFP.
