OAN’s Abril Elfi
3:15 PM – Saturday, October 7, 2023
Two 6.3 magnitude earthquakes hit Afghanistan causing the death of dozens of people and injuring hundreds more.
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An Afghanistan national disaster authority announced that two earthquakes hit the country on Saturday.
According to an update from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the death toll is an estimate of around 100 and roughly 500 injured although 320 possible casualties are still being verified.
The World Health Organization in Afghanistan said it dispatched 12 ambulance cars to Zenda Jan to evacuate victims to hospitals.
“As deaths & casualties from the earthquake continue to be reported, teams are in hospitals assisting treatment of wounded & assessing additional needs,” the U.N. agency said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “WHO-supported ambulances are transporting those affected, most of them women and children.”
The USGS website shows seven earthquakes in the region, including a 5.9-magnitude earthquake 21.7 miles north-northwest of Herat, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake 20.5 miles north-northeast of Zindah Jan, and another 6.3-magnitude earthquake 18 miles north-northeast of Zindah Jan, which is about 26 miles west of Herat city.
The Taliban-appointed deputy prime minister for economic matters, Abdul Ghani Baradar, gave his condolences to the victims and injured in Herat and Badghis.
The Taliban asked local organizations to get to earthquake-stricken areas as soon as possible to assist in transporting injured people to hospitals, providing refuge for the destitute, and delivering food to survivors.
They added that security authorities should deploy all of their resources and facilities to rescue anyone stuck under debris.
Dawood, a resident of the severely hit Zindah Jan district, told the press dozens of villages are destroyed and hundreds of people are under the rubble.
“I took nine dead bodies of my relatives to Herat and I’m on the way back. Roads to many of the villages are damaged. Lots of people would die under the rubble tonight,” Dawood said. “I can tell you only 50 people are alive in the village of my relatives, more than 400 people were living there until this morning. A catastrophe is unfolding here.”
The local governor said “a high number” of people are dead in the district as more than 10 villages are reduced to rubble.
The natural disaster happened after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the province of Paktika in June of last year, killing over 1,000 people and displacing tens of thousands.
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