Earthquake in Afghanistan: Majority of confirmed deaths occurred in Paktika province, where 100 people were killed and 250 injured, said an official.
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake killed at least 130 people in Afghanistan early Wednesday, an official said, adding that at least 250 people were injured and that checks are being carried out to see if the death toll could rise.
The quake struck about 44 km (27 miles) from the town of Khost, near the Pakistani border, at a depth of 51 km, the US Geological Survey said.
“Strong and long tremors,” a resident of the Afghan capital Kabul told the website of the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC).
“It was loud,” said a resident of the city of Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan. About 119 million people in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India felt the tremors, the EMSC said on Twitter.
Photos in the Afghan media showed houses being reduced to rubble.
The head of the Taliban government’s Ministry of Natural Disasters, Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, said most of the deaths occurred in Paktika province, where 100 people were killed and 250 injured.
Twenty-five other people were killed in Khost and five in Nangarhar province, he said, adding that investigations were underway to see if there were other victims.
No damage or casualties were immediately reported in Pakistan.
The disaster came as Afghanistan has been going through a severe economic crisis since the Taliban seized power in August, when US-led international forces withdrew after two decades of war.
In response to the Taliban takeover, many governments imposed sanctions on the Afghan banking sector and cut billions of dollars in development aid.
READ MORE| Swayamvar Mika Di Vohti : Mika Singh now ready for Groom-to-be
