State-run media and the United Nations say at least 1,000 people are dead and more than 1,500 are injured after a massive earthquake struck a portion of southeastern Afghanistan. The death toll is expected to increase as more people are found. The early morning earthquake that woke people in the dead of night caused massive destruction to buildings, especially the mud and wood structures found in rural villages. The United States Geological Survey was cited by the New York Times as the cause of the earthquake. The affected area is southwest of Khost, the provincial capital, and south of Afghanistan's capital of Kabul, according to the US Geological Survey. More than 100 million people from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India felt the earthquake. As the area takes in the full scope of destruction caused by rockslides, the death toll will likely increase, according to the US Geological Survey. A secondary 4.5 magnitude earthquake went off 30 miles southwest of Khost an hour after the first one, according to the US Geological Survey. There are many earthquakes that can go as high as magnitude 7.0.
At least 4,500 people were killed in a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in 1998. 166 people were killed in a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in western Pakistan in 2008 according to the US Geological Survey. 27 people were killed in an earthquake in Afghanistan.
Helicopters and ambulances from the capital were taking wounded to hospitals. A military helicopter lands in a rural area to pick up a wounded person.
The person who lives in the Sperah district told the Times that he woke up at 1 a.m. after the earthquake. Multiple buildings had been destroyed. The wounded were being transported by helicopter. People were pulling people out of the rubble.
Aid may be hard to come by. The Taliban overthrew the U.S. backed government in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. The UN is assessing the needs and responding to the aftermath of the earthquake, according to the World Health Organization.
According to reports by the AP and The Washington Post, some Afghans as well as some outside humanitarian operations noted they were sending aid, including the Italian medical aid group Emergency.
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