A powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on Monday, killing more than 800 people and injuring at least 2,800, officials confirmed. The tremor flattened villages, destroyed hundreds of homes, and left thousands without shelter as emergency teams rushed to reach remote and mountainous areas.
The quake’s shocks were felt across five Afghan provinces, including Kunar, Nangarhar, Laghman, Nuristan, and Kabul, sending residents fleeing into the streets in panic. The tremors were also reported in several parts of neighbouring Pakistan, where buildings shook in Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, forcing evacuations but causing no major damage.
Rescue operations have been launched, but officials warned that the casualty toll could rise sharply as many areas remain cut off due to blocked roads and difficult terrain. The disaster comes after weeks of heavy rains, which have saturated the ground, raising the risk of landslides and rockslides that now threaten rescue teams trying to reach survivors trapped under debris.
Authorities said helicopters have been deployed to airlift the wounded from remote villages to hospitals, while relief agencies are setting up temporary shelters for displaced families. Aid groups expressed concern that access to food, water, and medical care will become increasingly difficult as the scale of destruction becomes clearer in the coming days.
The earthquake has added to Afghanistan’s already dire humanitarian situation, with the country facing shortages of aid, food insecurity, and a struggling health system. Officials appealed to international partners for urgent support, stressing that thousands of lives remain at risk without swift intervention.
Authorities confirmed that 12 more people lost their lives and at least 255 others were injured in Nangarhar province, while another 58 were wounded in Laghman province as the devastation from the powerful earthquake spread across eastern Afghanistan.
In Wadir village, located in the badly hit Nurgal district, desperate residents worked alongside rescuers to pull survivors from the rubble of collapsed and damaged mud-brick homes. More than 12 hours after the tremor, dozens of people were still digging through debris with their bare hands, AFP correspondents reported from the scene.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake’s epicentre was located around 27 kilometres from Jalalabad city in Nangarhar province, striking at a depth of just eight kilometres below the Earth’s surface. Experts noted that such shallow quakes are especially destructive in Afghanistan, where most people live in fragile, low-rise dwellings highly prone to collapse.
The UN migration agency warned that several of the worst-affected villages in remote Kunar province remain cut off due to blocked roads and difficult terrain, hampering rescue and relief efforts. Aid agencies fear the casualty toll could rise further as teams struggle to reach isolated communities in the mountainous region.
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