920 dead in powerful Afghanistan earthquake: local reports
A powerful magnitude 5.9 earthquake on Wednesday killed more than 900 people in eastern Afghanistan, the highest death toll in the nation in decades, according to local reports.
The earthquake also injured 610 people, according to the Taliban’s state-run news agency, Bakhtar, which Deputy State Minister for Natural Disaster Management Mawlavi Sharfuddin Muslim. However, officials warned the toll is likely to rise.
The numbers cannot be currently confirmed as information around the quake in the remote region is scarce.
The news agency also posted cellphone video of the earthquake’s destruction from an unidentified man, with the footage showing destroyed homes in the area.
“I’m doing this video to show that all people here are under the building,” the man says, according to NPR. “Under that house, five people. This house, six people. And in this house, 13 dead bodies still under. All the village completely is destroyed.”
Rescue and search efforts in the area are ongoing, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Afghanistan.
–Developing
Source: TEST FEED1
