Afghanistan Earthquake: Death Toll Crosses 1000 In Most Devastating Tremor In 2 Decades

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Kabul: The death toll in the Afghanistan earthquake has crossed 1000, while over 1500 people are grievously injured, state-run Bakhtar News agency reported on Wednesday.

Most of the casualties were reported from the eastern Afghan province of Paktika, where nearly 300 people had been killed and over 300 injured, according to Interior ministry official Salahuddin Ayubi.

The earthquake struck on Wednesday morning about 44 km from the city of Khost, close to the Pakistani border.

European seismological agency EMSC said tremors were felt over an area of 500 km by 119 million people – in Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of northwest India.

A local journalist in Paktika told BBC that there has been widespread devastation, with villages being razed to the ground and landslides destroying mud houses. “Every street you go, you hear people mourning the deaths of their beloved ones. Houses are ruined,” the journalist said.