On September 2, local authorities said that the number of casualties from the worst earthquake to hit in the early morning of September 1 in Afghanistan continued to increase, with at least 821 people killed and at least 2,800 injured.
Afghanistan's health spokesman Sharafat Zaman has called on the international community to provide aid and join hands to help Afghanistan deal with the devastation caused by a powerful 6-magnitude richter earthquake, at a depth of 10km in the city of Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border.
Many people here have lost their networks and homes, Mr. Zaman told the press conference.
According to a spokesman for the Taliban government, Mr. Zabihullah Mujahid, the earthquake claimed the lives of 821 people living in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar. The death toll marks a spike from the report on the first day of the tragedy, with 250 dead and 1,000 injured.
Ziaul Haq Mohammadi, a student at Al-Falah University in eastern Jalalabad, said the earthquake occurred while he was studying indoors, and could not get up because the ground was so shaking at the time.
"We spent the whole night in fear and anxiety because another earthquake could happen at any time," Mohammadi said.
Notably, the 6-magnitude richter occurred as Afghanistan still faced domestic political uncertainty, adding to the pressure on the Taliban government's resources.
Not stopping there, the local rescue team is also struggling with many difficulties to rescue victims trapped in the rubble caused by natural disasters in areas with harsh terrain, prone to landslides and right in the middle of the night.
Afghanistan is particularly prone to earthquakes due to being located on the top of some faulty roads, at the intersection of the Indian and Asia- Europe tectonic plates.
The latest earthquake in Afghanistan was particularly brutal as it occurred quite roughly, leading to much greater devastation, although the intensity of this earthquake was only average.
About 1,000 people died and many others were injured in 2022 when a 5.9-magnitude richterake occurred in eastern Afghanistan. It was also a rural earthquake.
