About 100 people were killed and nearly 1,000 hurt after two 6.3 magnitude earthquakes rocked western Afghanistan Saturday, according to reports and the United Nations.
The death toll was U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reiterated.
The epicenter of the temblor, which struck at around noon local time, was about 25 miles northwest of Herat city, near the Iranian border. An aftershock brought 5.5 magnitude tremors.
Images and video of flattened villages, mud homes reduced to rubble and blankets laid over the dead were shared on social media as residents poured out into the streets following the disaster and makeshift hospitals were put in place.
“All people are out of their homes,” Herat city resident Abdul Shakor Samadi said.
“Houses, offices and shops are all empty and there are fears of more earthquakes. My family and I were inside our home, I felt the quake.”
The World Health Organization said it dispatched 12 ambulances to the town of Zinda Jan to evacuate casualties.
“As deaths & casualties from the earthquake continue to be reported, teams are in hospitals assisting treatment of wounded & assessing additional needs,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“WHO-supported ambulances are transporting those affected, most of them women and children.”
In June 2022, a powerful earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan and killed at least 1,000 and injured about 1,500.
With Post wires