A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Sunday, just over a week after strong quakes and aftershocks killed thousands of people and flattened entire villages in the same region.
The US Geological Survey said the latest quake’s epicentre was about 21 miles outside Herat, the provincial capital, and five miles below the surface.
Save the Children said four people had died and that Herat Regional Hospital had received 153 injured. Everything in the Baloch area of Rabat Sangi district had collapsed. Several villages had been destroyed, according to the aid group. Authorities had given lower casualty numbers.
Sayed Kazim Rafiqi, 42, a Herat city resident, said he had never seen such devastation before with the majority of houses damaged and “people terrified”.
Mr Rafiqi and others had headed to the hospital to donate much-needed blood.
“We have to help in any way possible,” he said.
The earthquakes on October 7 flattened whole villages in Herat in one of the most destructive quakes in the country’s recent history.
More than 90% of the people killed a week ago were women and children, UN officials reported Thursday.
Taliban officials said the earlier quakes killed more than 2,000 people across the province.
The epicentre was in Zenda Jan district, where 1,294 people died, 1,688 were injured and every home was destroyed, according to UN figures.
The initial quake, numerous aftershocks and a second 6.3-magnitude quake on Wednesday flattened villages, destroying hundreds of mud-brick homes that could not withstand such force. Schools, health clinics and other village facilities also collapsed.
