- The first reports show 30 dead in the single village: Ministry of Health.
- The number of victims and injuries is high, explains the spox of the ministry.
- The figures are likely to increase as reports arrive in distant areas.
Kabul: Hundreds were feared and injured after an earthquake of magnitude 6 struck two damaged provinces of East in Afghanistan, the authorities announced on Monday, while helicopters transported the wounded in the safety of the rubble combed in a hunt for survivors.
The reports showed 250 dead and 500 injured, said Najibullah Hanif, the provincial information chief of Kunar, adding that the count could change.
The catastrophe will further extend the resources of the South Asian nation already struggling with humanitarian crises, from a sharp drop in aid to a huge decline in its citizens from neighboring countries.
There was no confirmed assessment, the health authorities indicated in Kabul, the capital, while the rescuers were running to reach remote hamlets sprinkling a long history of earthquakes and floods.
“The figures of a few clinics no longer show 400 injured and dozens of deaths,” said ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman in a statement that warned against the higher victims.
Reuters television images have shown that helicopters transported the affected, while residents helped soldiers and doctors to transport the wounded to ambulances.
Three villages have been shaved in the province of Kunar, with substantial damage in many others, the Ministry of Health said.
The first reports showed 30 dead in a single village, with hundreds of injured people transported to the hospital, the authorities announced.
The rescuers rushed to find survivors in the region bordering the Pakistani region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the mud and stone houses were leveled by the midnight earthquake which reached a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
“Until now, no foreign government has contacted to support rescue or rescue work,” said a spokesperson for the foreigners office.
Afghanistan is subject to mortal earthquakes, especially in the Hindu mountain range in Kush, where Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, stressing the vulnerability of one of the poorest countries in the world to natural disasters.
