By Salik
A desperate search for survivors is under way after a series of earthquakes has killed and injured more than 2,000 people in west Afghanistan, with the death toll expected to rise.
Taliban Ministry of Disaster Management posted on X on Sunday that 2,053 people have been killed and injured in the earthquake, with at least 9,240 people living in the affected villages.
The US Geological Survey reported that the epicenter of a magnitude 6.3 earthquake was in Zindajan district of Herat province at a shallow depth of 14 kilometers.
The first earthquake struck at 11.11am local time on Saturday, followed by a series of three more severe quakes over the next hour ranging from magnitude 5.5 to 6.3.
The head of the Taliban’s public health department in Herat Mawlawi Shahid described the incident as horrific, saying several villages in Zindajan district were entirely destroyed and a large number of residents are still under the rubble.
“Right now, I am in the middle of the road. I have eight dead bodies and one wounded person with me in my car,” he said by phone while travelling back to Herat city from Zindajan district.
“Fifteen villages have been razed to the ground. Each of which has a hundred or two hundred houses,” he said. “The mullah of the mosque was injured and I brought him in my car.”
He also quoted a mullah of a mosque in another of Zindajan district’s villages as saying: “Our population was approximately 1,200 people, of which it seems no more than 100 or at most 200 people have survived. Most of them were martyred. The village has been completely razed to the ground.”
Taliban deputy minister for Information and Culture Hayatullah Mohajer Farahi has told reporters that the earthquake was also very severe in Ghoryan district. He said the exact number of casualties is as yet unclear.
Herat’s department head of Disaster Management Musa Ashari told Rukhshana Media that there are also hundreds of people injured in Herat city, about 35 kilometres south-east of the epicentre. At his last count there were 600 people injured, with the final number is not yet known.
He said at least 15 villages in Zindajan, Ghoryan and Anjil districts of the province have been completely destroyed.
The World Food Program in Afghanistan written in X that the death toll rises to over 2,000 people
photo: Rukhshana media
The spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Herat Nisar Ahmad Ilyas said all civil and military government departments are working to help the victims of the earthquake in different areas of Herat city.
Witnesses on the ground say the destruction is widespread. Herat-based reporters Wahid Paiman and Ruhollah Danish have both said that the Zindajan villages that have been flattened are Naib Rafi, Siah Aab, Sin Jo, Wardakha, Karnil, Sarboland, Kashkak, Chahak and Sanjab.
Mr Paiman said there are hundreds of wounded who are attempted to be transferred to Herat Regional Hospital, but due to the lack of space and facilities, a large number of people were receiving medical care outside in the hospital yard.
A source in Herat Regional Hospital said doctors are coming from their homes and personal clinics to help treat the wounded. He said aid agencies are also sending out mobile teams to the affected areas to try and help those unable to travel.
A resident in Herat city’s 11th district told Rukhshana Media that the earthquake began first as a shudder and then suddenly increased in magnitude.
“At the beginning, it felt like a heavy car was passing through the alley,” Nargis Jamshidi said. “The next time it was so strong that we couldn’t even keep our balance.”
Aqila Mowafaq, a dentist and a resident of Al-Mahdi Jabriel township of Herat city, said her clinic was wrecked in the earthquake and that the residents of the area are extremely scared.
She said despite the cold weather, everyone has left their homes and are trying to shelter in the streets.
Other residents in Herat province have said aftershocks have continued the whole day with at least eight strong and relatively strong earthquakes through to Saturday night.
Afghan Red Crescent said its staff are helping pull people out from the rubble in the villages of Kashkak, Sia Aab and Sanjab which have been completely destroyed. It said at least 400 people were confirmed as dead.
