Afghanistan earthquake death toll rises to 950: official

An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 that rocked Afghanistan has killed at least 950 people in the country's east, an official of the country's disaster management authority said on Wednesday, adding that hundreds of people were injured and the toll was likely to rise as information trickled in from remote mountain villages.

According to Salahuddin Ayubi, an official with the interior ministry, the most of the fatalities were reported in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika, where 950 people had died and more than 610 had been injured.

He reported that 25 fatalities and 90 hospitalizations had occurred in the province of Khost. "Since some of the communities are in isolated mountainous areas and it will take some time to gather details, the death toll is sure to grow."

Helicopters were being deployed by the authorities to reach the injured and provide food and medical supplies, Ayubi added.

In the meantime, images posted on Afghan media showed houses in ruins and bodies on the ground covered in blankets.

The US Geological Survey reports that the earthquake struck at 1:54am (PST), at a depth of 51 km, roughly 44 km (27 miles) from the city of Khost, close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. About 119 million people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India felt the earthquake at a distance of about 500 miles.

Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Kohat, Mohmand, Swat, Buner, and other areas of Punjab and KP in Pakistan all experienced earthquakes.

Panicked people fled their homes in search of safer locations. One Peshawar resident remarked, "It was strong."

A guy from Lakki Marwat was reportedly killed in the earthquake as the ceiling of his chamber collapsed, according to a report by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Disaster Management Authority.

Any assistance from international organisations would be welcome, according to a spokesman for the Afghan foreign ministry.

A tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing against the Eurasian plate from the north, which is causing seismic activity across significant portions of south Asia.

In 2015, an earthquake in the far-flung northeast of Afghanistan killed hundreds of people there as well as in neighbouring northern Pakistan.

Pakistan expresses its sympathies

Immediately after the earthquake was reported, the government of Pakistan extended condolences and sympathies over the loss of lives and damage to property in the neighbouring country.