INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 killed 950 people in Afghanistan early on Wednesday, disaster management officials said, with more than 600
injured and the toll expected to grow as information trickles in from remote mountain villages.Photographs on Afghan media showed houses
reduced to rubble, with bodies swathed in blankets lying on the ground.Helicopters were deployed in the rescue effort to reach the injured
It struck about 44 km (27 miles) from the southeastern city of Khost, near the border with Pakistan, the U.S
Geological Survey (USGC) said.Most of the confirmed deaths were in the eastern province of Paktika, where 255 people were killed and more
than 200 injured, Ayubi added
In the province of Khost, 25 were dead and 90 had been taken to hospital.Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the ruling Taliban,
offered his condolences in a statement.Mounting a rescue operation could prove a major test for the Taliban, who took over the country in
August and have been cut off from much international assistance because of sanctions.Shaking was felt by about 119 million people in
Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, the EMSC said on Twitter, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in Pakistan.The EMSC
many regions, which the disaster agency said had killed 11, injured 50 and blocked stretches of highway.The disaster comes as Afghanistan
grapples with a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took over, as U.S.-led international forces withdrew following two decades of
office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said Afghanistan had asked humanitarian agencies to help with rescue efforts,
Neighbouring Pakistan said it was working to extend assistance.Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate
known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.In 2015, an earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast, killing
several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan.In January, an earthquake struck western Afghanistan, killing more than
20 people.
Source: Reuters
-Agencies
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://adaderana.lk
