Afghanistan earthquake kills at least 920, injures 600, officials say

Afghanistan earthquake kills at least 920, injures 600, officials say

By Haq Nawaz Khan, Adela Suliman and Shaiq Hussain 

Updated June 22, 2022 at 5:11 a.m. EDT|Published June 22, 2022 at 4:18 a.m. EDT

Afghans try to help the wounded in Paktika province. (Bakhtar News Agency/AP)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A massive earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan overnight Wednesday, killing at least 920 people and injuring more than 600, the government said.

The earthquake flattened homes while many people were sleeping, with its epicenter in the mountainous area near the country’s border with Pakistan — about 27 miles from the city of Khost — according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which put the magnitude at 5.9.

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Tremors were also felt in Pakistan and India, according to Pakistan’s National Seismic Monitoring Center.

Maulawi Sharafuddin Muslim, acting deputy minister for the country’s disaster management authority, told a news conference that “some villages have been completely destroyed.” Muslim said he was relaying information from rescue officials and was “waiting for the details about the damages to houses.”

Helicopter evacuates people injured in Afghanistan quake

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A helicopter landed in Afghanistan's remote Paktika province on June 22 to transport those injured by an earthquake that has killed more than 900 people. (Video: Reuters)

He said an emergency cabinet meeting had been convened and Afghanistan’s prime minister was leading the response, working with state institutions and ministries to “closely coordinate” rescue and relief efforts.

The government will allocate about $11 million in aid, Muslim said, with about $1,000 given to families of the deceased and $500 each to the injured.

A map from the U.S. Geological Survey shows the location of the earthquake. (USGS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Earlier Wednesday, before Muslim announced the much larger death toll as details emerge from the remote region, a Taliban official reported that 285 had been killed.

The province of Paktika was hit hardest, with earlier estimates of 255 killed and 500 wounded, said Muhammad Nasim Haqqani, a disaster management spokesman. He said at least 25 people were killed in the neighboring Khost province and five others in the Nangahar province.

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A Taliban government spokesman, Bilal Karimi, tweeted that the country would welcome help from international organizations.

“Last night, a severe earthquake killed and injured hundreds of our countrymen and destroyed dozens of houses in the four districts of Paktika province,” he said. “All aid agencies are urged to send their teams to the area immediately so that further catastrophe can be prevented.”

Amir Hakim Tanai, a Kabul-based official of the International Red Cross in Afghanistan, said that workers were on their way to collect information and aid in the rescue efforts.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan also said it had been asked to support the country’s disaster management authority.

“Inter-agency assessment teams have already been deployed to a number of affected areas,” the agency tweeted. “The UN and humanitarian country team in Afghanistan expresses deep sympathy to all people affected by this disaster.”

An earthquake caused devastation in the province of Paktika, in eastern Afghanistan, on June 22. (Bakhtar News Agency/AP)

Few countries have recognized the Taliban’s government since it came to power in August 2021, following the rapid departure of U.S. and other Western forces. It has implemented ultraconservative social policies and restricted rights, while seeking foreign aid.

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Wednesday’s epicenter is about 300 miles northeast of where a deadly earthquake in 2008 killed 166 people with a magnitude of 6.4, according to the USGC.

The prime minister of neighboring Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, tweeted that he was “deeply grieved.”

“People in Pakistan share the grief & sorrow of their Afghan brethren,” he said, adding that Pakistani authorities were also working to support those devastated by the quake.

Suliman reported from London and Hussain from Islamabad.

The Washington  Post