Afghanistan: Strong earthquake kills 920 people

In Afghanistan, a powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of eastern part near the Pakistani border early on Wednesday, killing at least 920 people and injuring 600 others, authorities said. Officials warned the death toll would likely rise. According to reports rescue efforts are likely to be complicated since many international aid agencies left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover of the country last year and the chaotic withdrawal of the US military from the longest war in its history. The quake struck about 44 km (27 miles) from the city of Khost, near the Pakistani border, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGC) said.

Earthquake was felt in the Barmala, Ziruk, Naka and Gayan districts of Paktika province, Afghanistan’s Bakhtar news agency said on twitter. The Agency further reports that at least 25 people have been killed and more than 95 others injured in an earthquake in Sapari district, Khost province last night. Local officials say the death toll could rise, if the Central Government did not provide emergency help. According to Reuters news agency reports that the earthquake of magnitude 6.1 on Richter scale that rocked the country's east part of the country.. Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, the head of the Taliban Administration's Disaster Management Authority said, the majority of the deaths were in Paktika province where 100 people were killed and 250 injured. He said, deaths were also reported in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Khost.
A Deputy Spokesman for the Taliban Government, Bilal Karimi, wrote on Twitter that a severe earthquake shook four districts of Paktika province, killing and injuring hundreds of our countrymen and destroying dozens of houses. The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said, tremors were felt across in Pakistan and India. According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake which hit during the early hours as many people slept was a magnitude 6.1 quake at a depth of some 51 kilometres. According to Geo News, tremors were felt in some parts of Pakistan like Islamabad, Multan, Bhakkar, Phalia, Peshawar, Malakand, Swat, Mianwali, Pakpattan, and Buner, among other places.