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Powerful earthquake in Afghanistan kills 800, injures 2,800
Tehran says ready to send humanitarian aid
The disaster will further stretch the resources of the war-torn nation's Taliban administration, already grappling with crises ranging from a sharp drop in foreign aid to deportations of hundreds of thousands of Afghans by neighboring countries, Reuters reported.
Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Kabul, called for international aid to tackle the devastation wrought by the quake of magnitude 6 that struck around midnight local time, at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).
"We need it because here lots of people lost their lives and houses," he said.
The quake killed 812 people in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, administration spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
Ziaul Haq Mohammadi, a student at Al-Falah University in the eastern city of Jalalabad, was studying in his room at home when the quake struck. He said he tried to stand up but was knocked over by the power of the tremor.
"We spent the whole night in fear and anxiety because at any moment another earthquake could happen," Mohammadi said.
Rescuers were battling to reach remote mountainous areas cut off from mobile networks along the Pakistani border, where mudbrick homes dotting the slopes collapsed in the quake.
"The area of the earthquake was affected by heavy rain in the last 24-48 hours as well, so the risk of landslides and rock slides is also quite significant – that is why many of the roads are impassable," Kate Carey, an officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), told Reuters.
Casualties could rise as rescue teams access more isolated locations, authorities said.
"All our ... teams have been mobilized to accelerate assistance, so that comprehensive and full support can be provided," said Health Ministry spokesperson Abdul Maten Qanee, citing efforts in areas from security to food and health.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a message on Monday expressed condolences to Afghanistan and voiced Tehran's readiness to send humanitarian relief aid.