The authorities confirmed the death of at least 180 people as a result of the seven earthquakes of up to 6.3 magnitudes recorded this Saturday in the district of Zinda Jan, in the western Afghan province of Herat, while More than 600 people are injured.
“So far we have more than 180 martyrs in the hospital and more than 600 injured,” the director of the Herat regional hospital, Mohammad Arif Jalili, informed EFE.
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The official added that the toll of victims could increase in the coming hours.
Although search operations continue, “there is no town that does not have hundreds of dead and the number of victims may increase even more,” the press director of the Ministry of Disaster Management, Mula Janan Sayeq, told EFE.
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Although search operations continue, “there is no town that does not have hundreds of dead and the number of victims may increase even more,” the press director of the Ministry of Disaster Management, Mula Janan Sayeq, told EFE.
Authorities fear that hundreds of people have died, an estimate they base on the number of people who lived in the affected villages, inhabited by approximately a thousand people, turned into rubble.
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“People are under the collapsed houses, and maybe it’s that many people (deceased), different rescue teams working there,” Sayeq said.
Seven villages in Zinda Khan, the epicenter of the earthquake, “are completely destroyed,” said Sayeq, a fact that the Bakhter news agency, under the command of the Taliban, raised to 12 villages in the districts of Zinda Khan and Ghorian, both in Herat province, western Afghanistan.
For its part, the NGO Doctors Without Borders said it was supporting medical care at the Herat regional hospital, “where more than 300 injured people have arrived,” as reported on the social network X, formerly Twitter, although it is unknown if they are included in the balance offered by the Afghan authorities.
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Five tremors in one hour shook Afghanistan
Afghanistan felt at least seven tremors this day. The first of all, the largest, occurred at 12:11 (+5:30 GMT) at a depth of 14 kilometers and 33 kilometers from the city of Zindah Jan, located in the province of Herat, according to the USGS.
Four consecutive aftershocks of 5.5 followed; 4.7; 6.3; and 5.9 respectively in a period of one hour.
The fourth earthquake, also measuring 6.3, was recorded about ten kilometers deep and about 29 kilometers from Zindah Jan.
Later, the US seismology service felt two more tremors almost an hour later in Herat province of 4.8 and 4.9 degrees, respectively.
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