2023-10-10 08:08:02
ZINDA JAN, Afghanistan (AP) — Clinging to hope that survivors can still be found, rescuers and residents continued digging through the rubble in western Afghanistan’s Herat province on Tuesday, three days after one of The deadliest earthquakes in the region left more than 2,000 dead.
Elsewhere in the region, people opened graves for loved ones killed in Saturday’s 6.3 magnitude earthquake. In a vacant field in the Zinda Jan district, an excavator removed piles of earth to make way for a long row of graves.
The epicenter was about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the city of Herat, the provincial capital, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Several of the aftershocks have been powerful, including one that sent residents in the city running from their homes on Monday.
“It is very difficult to find a relative from a destroyed house and minutes later bury him in a nearby grave, again underground,” said Mir Agha, from the provincial capital, who joined the hundreds of volunteers helping the population. local in Zinda Jan.
Janan Sayiq, spokesman for the Taliban government’s national disaster agency, said the quake caused thousands of deaths and injuries, but gave no further details. Taliban officials had previously reported more than 2,000 deaths in Herat.
The United Nations declared that the Zinda Jan district was the most affected area, with 1,294 dead and 1,688 injured. Additionally, 485 people — 191 men and 294 women — were missing. Six schools in the district were destroyed, the UN said.
Nearly 2,000 houses in 20 villages were left in ruins, according to the Taliban. There is only one public hospital in the affected area.
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