|
A house was destroyed after an earthquake in Herat province, Afghanistan on October 7, 2023. Photo: IRNA/TTXVN
|
Afghanistan Ministry of Disaster Management spokesman Janan Sayeeq confirmed the number of deaths had reached 2,445 people, but lowered the number of injured victims to “more than 2,000” people, compared to 9,240 people previously reported. Also according to Mr. Sayeeq, 1,320 houses were damaged or completely destroyed.
This is one of the earthquake disasters that claimed the most lives in the world in the past year after the terrible earthquake in Turkey and Syria in February 2023 that killed more than 50,000 people. The number of deaths is likely to increase as rescue forces are quickly searching for missing people in the rubble. According to Mr. Janan Sayeeq, there are currently 10 rescue teams conducting search and rescue work.
Images shared on social networks showed hospital beds arranged outside the main hospital in the city of Herat, where the magnitude 6.2 earthquake occurred. The head of the Taliban’s Political Office in Qatar emphasized the need for essential goods such as food, drinking water, medicine, clothes and tents to serve rescue and humanitarian relief forces.
Earthquakes frequently occur in Afghanistan, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range (located between the country and Pakistan), which is near the intersection of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In June 2022, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook Paktika province, killing more than 1,000 people and tens of thousands of people homeless. In March this year, 13 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan also died after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake occurred near the Jurm area, Northeast Afghanistan.