A powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing at least 920 people and injuring 600 others in the deadliest temblor in two decades.
KABUL, Afghanistan — A powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing at least 920 people and injuring 600 others in the deadliest temblor in two decades, authorities said. Officials warned that the already grim toll would likely rise.
Neighboring Pakistan’s Meteorological Department said the quake's epicenter was in Afghanistan's Paktika province, some 50 kilometers southwest of the city of Khost. Buildings were also damaged in Khost province. The U.S. Geological Survey, which recorded the magnitude at slightly lower at 5.9, put the depth at just 10 kilometers — another factor that could increase the damage.
Earlier, the director-general of state-run Bakhtar news agency, Abdul Wahid Rayan, wrote on Twitter that 90 houses have been destroyed in Paktika and dozens of people are believed trapped under the rubble. The “response is on its way,” the U.N. resident coordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, wrote on Twitter.
Some remote areas of Pakistan saw reports of damage to homes near the Afghan border, but it wasn't immediately clear if that was due to rain or the earthquake, said Taimoor Khan, a disaster management spokesperson in the area.
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