JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN, SEPT 2 (AFP/APP/DNA):Rescuers desperately searched Tuesday for survivors in the rubble of homes flattened by an earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 900 people.
The 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan around midnight Sunday, followed by at least five aftershocks.
Emergency “operations continued throughout the night”, the head of the Kunar Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Ehsanullah Ehsan, told AFP.
He said there were “still injured people left in the distant villages” in need of evacuation to hospitals.
Villagers joined the rescue efforts, using their bare hands to clear debris from mud and stone homes built into steep valleys.
Obaidullah Stoman, 26, who travelled to the village of Wadir to search for a friend, was overwhelmed by the level of destruction.
“I’m searching here, but I didn’t see him. It was very difficult for me to see the conditions here,” he told AFP.
“There is only rubble left.”
The dead, including children, were wrapped in white shrouds by villagers who prayed over their bodies before burying them.
Some of the hardest-hit villages remain inaccessible due to blocked roads, the UN migration agency told AFP.
The earthquake epicentre was about 27 kilometres (17 miles) from Jalalabad, according to the USGS, which said it struck just eight kilometres below the Earth’s surface.
Such relatively shallow quakes can cause more damage, especially since the majority of Afghans live in low-rise, mud-brick homes vulnerable to collapse.
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