2023-10-07 17:15:17
Herat province
Earthquake shakes Afghanistan – hundreds of deaths
An earthquake struck the Herat region of Afghanistan on Saturday morning. Hundreds of houses collapsed.
Published7. October 2023, 7:15 p.m
People in a destroyed village…
Social Media/ X
… are desperately looking for survivors.
Social Media/ X
A total of eight earthquakes shook the region.
Social Media/ X
In the provincial capital Herat, people also fled to the streets.
There was already a severe earthquake in Afghanistan in 2022 that killed 1,000 people.
Social Media/ X
Several earthquakes with a magnitude of up to 6.3 on the Richter scale have shaken Herat province.
Seven villages were completely destroyed.
The UN has reported around 320 deaths to date.
Afghanistan’s disaster protection fears strong earthquake Hundreds of deaths in Herat province. Seven villages in the badly affected border province in the west of the country were completely destroyed, a spokesman for the national disaster control told the German Press Agency on Saturday. “In some villages up to 1,000 or more people lived. There were 300 houses. Only 100 people survived,” said the spokesman. Many residents are believed to be under rubble. According to the UN, the number of deaths has so far risen to 320.
People fled into the streets
According to the spokesman for the Taliban ruling Afghanistan, Sabiullah Mujahid, military and rescue organizations have been ordered to rush to the earthquake-affected region to help. Hospitals were therefore preparing for numerous injured people. Videos on social media showed devastated villages with piles of rubble, among which numerous victims are suspected. In the provincial capital Herat, crowds of people poured onto the streets out of concern that buildings would collapse, residents reported.
On Saturday morning, at least eight earthquakes shook the border region near Iran within a short period of time. The US earthquake monitoring station USGS put the magnitude at values between 4.6 and 6.3. The tremors occurred in the morning northwest of the Afghan border town of Herat, at a shallow depth of around ten kilometers. The quakes were also felt in neighboring Iran. Residents of the metropolis of Mashhad in Iran, around 300 kilometers from the earthquake zone, said that the walls of houses were shaking. According to Iran’s state media, teams were sent to border areas to inspect possible damage. There were dozens of followingshocks.
Already 1,000 deaths last year
A resident of the Afghan province of Herat reported the strong quakes: “We fled the buildings,” said the man. “Everyone is in the open and no one knows what happened to their houses.” More than two million people live in the Afghan border province.
Severe earthquakes occur once more and once more in the region where the Arabian, Indian and Eurasian plates meet. At a devastating earthquake More than 1,000 people died in Afghanistan in 2022. After several decades of conflict, many houses are in poor condition. Earthquakes therefore often cause major damage.
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(DPA/trx)
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