At least 920 people died in a powerful earthquake that shook the provinces of Paktika and Khost in southeastern Afghanistan on Tuesday night, according to authorities.
With a magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter scale, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 10 km around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, near the border with Pakistan, according to the U.S. Seismological Institute (USGS). A second magnitude 4.5 tremor struck at the same location at the same time, according to the USGS.
"So far, according to the information we have, at least 920 people have been killed and 600 injured," Sharafuddin Muslim, deputy minister for natural disasters, told a press conference.
For his part, deputy government spokesman Bilal Karimi, said that "many houses have been damaged and people are trapped inside." "We call on aid agencies to provide immediate assistance to the victims of the earthquake to avoid a humanitarian disaster," he had earlier tweeted.
Photos posted on social networks show collapsed houses in the streets of a village in this rural region difficult to access.
The earthquake was felt in the capital Kabul, located about 200 km north of the epicenter of the earthquake. It was also felt in neighboring Pakistan, but no damage or casualties were reported.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies at the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
