Weather of Arabia - The Afghan Ministry of Disasters reported that the death toll from the earthquake that struck Herat Province in western Afghanistan yesterday - Saturday - with a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale exceeded two thousand people, and that the number of wounded reached 9,240 people.
It also indicated that the earthquake destroyed 1,329 homes, and the earthquake was followed by strong earthquakes and aftershocks, the epicenter of which was 35 kilometers northwest of the city of Herat, one of which reached 6.3 degrees, according to the Geological Survey.
Reuters quoted an official in the health authority in Herat state as saying that more than 200 bodies arrived at various hospitals in the region, most of them women and children, in addition to 510 injured people, pointing out that these numbers may change.
The official said that the bodies of the victims were transported to several locations, including military bases and hospitals, making it difficult to determine the final tally of the number of victims.
Meanwhile, Bilal Karimi, spokesman for the Afghan government, stated early Sunday morning that the death toll from the earthquake was very high and that the number of victims exceeded a thousand people.
The media also reported that a resident of the Herat region in the affected Afghan province of Herat said that the earthquake and the aftershocks that followed caused a state of panic among the city’s residents.
According to a report from the American Institute of Geophysics, the peak of seismic activity was located 40 kilometers northwest of the city of Herat, and then the peak expanded rapidly at 4 points with a strength of 5.5, 4, 7, 6.3, and 5.9 degrees on the Richter scale, respectively.
About 1.9 million residents live in Herat, according to World Bank data. A journalist confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the city’s residents felt the earthquake when the ground trembled around 11:00 am (06:30 GMT).
Natural Disaster Management Services spokesman Mullah Jan Saiq said landslides occurred in rural and mountainous areas.
It is worth noting that Afghanistan is frequently exposed to earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the meeting place of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Agencies
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