Desk Report
Publish: 22 Jun 2022, 12:23 pm
Pictures from Paktika province show extensive destruction to buildings || Photo: Collected
At
least 255 people were killed after an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the richter
scale struck eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday. Speaking to reporters, a
local government official said that the death toll may rise as several people
are seriously injured.
The epicentre was about 44 km from Khost city
in Afghanistan and was at a depth of 51 km, said the US Geological Survey
(USGS). The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) asserted that
people in Pakistan and India also felt tremors.
Disturbing
pictures floating on social media showed destroyed stone houses, people being
taken on stretchers, rubble and ruined homes in Paktika province near the
Pakistan border.
Taking
to Twitter, government spokesman Bilal Karimi
said,”Unfortunately, last night there was a severe earthquake in four
districts of Paktika province, which killed and injured hundreds of our
countrymen and destroyed dozens of houses.”
“We
urge all aid agencies to send teams to the area immediately to prevent further
catastrophe”, he added.
Mountainous
Afghanistan and the larger region of South Asia, where the Indian tectonic
plate collides with the Eurasian plate to the north, has long been vulnerable
to devastating earthquakes.
In
2015, a major earthquake that struck the country’s northeast killed over 200
people in Afghanistan and neighboring northern Pakistan. A similar 6.1
earthquake in 2002 killed about 1,000 people in northern Afghanistan. And in
1998, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tremors in Afghanistan’s remote
northeast killed at least 4,500 people.
Subscribe Shampratik Deshkal Youtube Channel
Topic : Afghanistan Earthquake South Asia Asia
© 2024 Shampratik Deshkal All Rights Reserved. Design & Developed By Root Soft Bangladesh