Afghanistan Earthquake Kills 622, Injures Over 1,500

More than 600 people have been killed and over 1,500 injured in one of Afghanistan’s deadliest earthquakes, officials said on Monday. Survivors were pulled from the rubble and airlifted by helicopters to hospitals as rescue teams continued searching for those trapped.

The disaster adds to the strain on the South Asian nation, already crippled by a deepening humanitarian crisis, dwindling foreign aid, and the mass return of Afghans from neighboring countries.

According to the Taliban-run Interior Ministry, the 6.0-magnitude quake struck eastern Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, killing at least 622 people, injuring more than 1,500, and destroying countless homes.

“All our teams have been mobilized to accelerate relief efforts and provide comprehensive assistance,” ministry spokesman Abdul Matin Qani told Reuters, citing operations ranging from security to food and healthcare.

In the capital Kabul, health officials said rescue crews were racing to reach remote areas long vulnerable to both earthquakes and flooding.

This was the most devastating quake to hit Afghanistan since June 2022, when a 6.1-magnitude tremor claimed at least 1,000 lives.

Reuters television footage showed helicopters airlifting victims, while local residents joined soldiers and medics in carrying the injured to ambulances.

Authorities reported that three villages in Kunar were completely flattened, with many others heavily damaged. At least 610 people were killed in Kunar alone, while Nangarhar recorded 12 deaths.

Rescue teams struggled to reach survivors in mountainous areas near the Pakistan border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the midnight quake reduced mud and stone houses to rubble. The quake struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).

The Defense Ministry said military rescue units had been deployed across both provinces, conducting 40 sorties to evacuate more than 420 people, both dead and injured.

“So far, no foreign government has reached out to provide assistance for the rescue or relief operations,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed.

Afghanistan remains highly prone to lethal earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide.

Just last year, a series of quakes in the country’s west killed more than 1,000 people, underscoring the extreme vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest nations to natural disasters.