Afghan Earthquakes Kill 2,445 Persons

No fewer than 2,445 people have been killed in earthquakes in Afghanistan, the Taliban administration said yesterday, in the deadliest tremors to rock the quake-prone mountainous country in years.

The Saturday quakes in the west of the country hit 35 km (20 miles) northwest of the city of Herat, with one of 6.3 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

Janan Sayeeq, spokesman for the Ministry of Disasters, said in a message to international media that the toll had risen to 2,445 dead, but he revised down the number of injured to “more than 2,000”.

He had earlier said that 9,240 people had been injured.

Sayeeq also said 1,320 houses had been damaged or destroyed. The death toll spiked from 500 reported earlier yesterday by the Red Crescent.

Ten rescue teams were in the area, which borders Iran, Sayeeq told a press conference.

More than 200 dead bodies had been brought to various hospitals, said a Herat health department official who identified himself as Dr Danish, adding that most of them were women and children.

Bodies had been “taken to several places – military bases, hospitals”, Danish said.

Beds were set up outside the main hospital in Herat to receive a flood of victims, photos on social media showed.

Food, drinking water, medicine, clothes and tents were urgently needed for rescue and relief, Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban political office in Qatar, said in a message to the media.

Report says hemmed in by mountains, Afghanistan has a history of strong earthquakes, many in the rugged Hindu Kush region bordering Pakistan.