(Kabul) At least six people were killed and nine injured in an earthquake that occurred overnight from Sunday to Monday in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, the Afghan government said.
Posted at 9:16 a.m.
“An earthquake struck at 2:30 a.m. last night in Kabul, Laghman, Kunar and Nangarhar provinces,” said Deputy Minister of Natural Disasters Sharafuddin Muslim.
“Six people were killed and nine others injured in Kunar province,” he told AFP.
“We are gathering information from other areas to find out if there are other casualties and to assess the damage,” he said.
The earthquake was of magnitude 5.3, according to the United States Seismological Institute (USGS).
It comes less than three years after the worst earthquake in Afghanistan in more than two decades, the June 22 earthquake in the southeast, which measured 5.9 and killed more than 1,000 people. and thousands of homeless people.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies at the junction between the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
They often have disastrous consequences, due to the weak resistance of Afghan houses in rural areas.
In October 2015, a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit the Hindu Kush range, straddling Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing more than 380 people in these two countries.
In recent months, Afghanistan has also been hit by flash floods that have killed around 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes in several provinces.
These disasters represent a huge logistical challenge for the Afghan Taliban government, which has isolated itself from most of the world by establishing a strict Islamist regime.