1,200 feared dead in Afghan earthquake
Around 1,200 people are feared dead today following an overnight earthquake in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Aid officials said locals put the death toll at 1,200, but the Afghan Defence Ministry said only 600 bodies have been recovered so far.
Zalmay Khalilzad, US President George W Bush’s special envoy to Afghanistan, said the death toll could reach 1,800, attributing his information to interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.
The earthquake, which measured 5.9 on the Richter Scale, destroyed five villages in the Nahrin region, north of Kabul.
It was centred in the Hindu Kush mountains, 140kms north of Kabul, where another quake on March 3 killed more than 100 people.
