The death toll has risen to more than 1,400 in a 6.0-magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, a senior Afghan official said Tuesday, as the Taliban appealed for international aid and rescue workers warned that many people might still be trapped beneath the rubble.
More than 3,000 people were injured in Sunday night’s quake, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban government’s chief spokesman, said in a post on X. Officials warned that the number of victims was likely to continue to rise sharply.
Rescuers were struggling to access some of the impacted regions, after landslides triggered by the quake blocked many roads. Damage was most severe in Konar province, a remote and rural part of Afghanistan,where local officials said entire villages had been flattened. Afghan officials also reported casualties in the neighboring Nangahar province — where the earthquake’s epicenter is — and Laghman province.
“International organizations have played a key role during such disasters in the past,” said Yousuf Hammad, a spokesman for the Taliban-run National Disaster Management Authority. “We definitely need international humanitarian aid.”
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