A strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook Afghanistan’s western Herat province on Saturday, killing at least 14 and injuring 78, an official said, adding that the toll could rise as more bodies are found under the rubble.
A strong earthquake shook the province of Herat in AfghanistanPhoto: AFP / AFP / Profimedia
“There are figures that have been communicated to the central hospital so far, but this is not the final balance,” the director of the public health department in Herat province, Mohammad Taleb Shahid, told AFP, reports Agerpres. “We were informed that there are people under the rubble,” he added.
The United States Geophysical Institute (USGS) recorded on Saturday, in western Afghanistan, five consecutive earthquakes with magnitudes between 4.7 and 6.3, the EFE agency reported.
The first earthquake, the strongest, occurred at 12:11 local time (+5:30 GMT), at a depth of 14 kilometers and 33 kilometers from the city of Zindah Jan, located in Herat province, according to the USGS.
Four consecutive aftershocks followed, measuring 5.5, 4.7, 6.3, and 5.9 degrees, respectively, within an hour, according to USGS data.
The fourth earthquake, also with a magnitude of 6.3, was recorded at a depth of about ten kilometers and about 29 kilometers from Zindah Jan.
These earthquakes occurred in the same week in which Afghanistan, Nepal and India recorded five consecutive earthquakes, with magnitudes between 2.5 and 6.2. The one that shook Afghanistan was 4.7, registered on Tuesday at a depth of 10 kilometers, in the city of Fayzabad, in western Afghanistan, according to the National Center of Seismology (NCS) in India.
Afghanistan is among the countries most prone to natural disasters and has a very vulnerable population, mostly poor, and insufficient infrastructure to cope with floods or earthquakes.
In late June last year, a similar 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Paktika and Khost provinces on the border with Pakistan, killing more than a thousand people and injuring around 1,500, in addition to destroying of hundreds of houses.
The Asian country also suffered one of its worst earthquake disasters in February 1998, when two earthquakes of magnitude 5.9 and 6 struck the north of the country, killing about 4,000 people. A few months later, at the end of May, another 7 degree earthquake hit the same area, causing about 5,000 deaths.
