A 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan overnight, killing hundreds of people and injuring more than 1,000 others, the authorities said on Monday.
Rescue workers were rushing to reach communities in mountainous areas hit by the quake, which sent strong aftershocks into Kabul, the capital.
The death toll is expected to rise significantly.
Here’s what you need to know:
Where are the hardest-hit areas?
The epicenter was near Jalalabad, an eastern city of about 200,000 people. The city is less than 100 miles from Kabul, the capital, and close to the Pakistan border.
The quake was shallow, just five miles from the earth’s surface, which made it more likely to be destructive. Soon after the initial shaking stopped, people scrambled in the middle of the night to reach neighbors trapped under the debris of collapsed houses, according to videos shared on social media.
At least four eastern Afghan provinces — Nangarhar, Nuristan, Laghman and Kunar — had been affected by the quake, said Kate Carey, the deputy head of the United Nations’ office of humanitarian affairs in Afghanistan.
