Deadly earthquake hits northern Afghanistan

A health official claims that northern Afghanistan has been shaken by a magnitude 6. 6.3 earthquake, which has caused at least 20 fatalities and more than 500 injuries.

The quake’s epicentre was 22 kilometers (14 miles) west of the town of Khulm on Monday, according to the United States Geological Survey, and it struck at 12:59 am (21:29 GMT on Sunday) at a depth of 28 kilometers (17 miles).

According to Sharafat Zaman, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health, 534 injured people and 20 dead were transported to hospitals in the provinces of Balkh and Samangan. He continued, “There were rescuers on the scene, and the figures were changing.”

According to Ihsanullah Kamgar, a provincial police headquarters spokesperson, the earthquake in the nearby province of Badakhshan damaged or destroyed 800 homes in a village in the Shahr-e-Bozorg district.

There were still no reliable casualty figures, he continued, citing the remote area’s lack of internet access.

Most of the injured, according to Yousaf Hammad, a spokesperson for the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority, had minor wounds and were discharged after receiving treatment.

The Ministry of Defense announced that rescue and emergency teams had reached the quake-affected Balkh and Samangan areas, which had suffered the most damage, and were moving the injured and assisting others in Kabul, the country’s capital.

A main mountain highway connecting Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif was briefly blocked by a rockslide, according to the Defense Ministry, but the road was later reopened. Some people who had been harmed and trapped along the highway were taken to a hospital, according to the statement.