KABUL: The death toll from Sunday’s earthquake in eastern Afghanistan rose to 1,124 on Tuesday, with at least 3,251 people injured and more than 8,000 homes destroyed, local officials said.
The Afghan Red Crescent Society warned the toll could climb further as rescuers struggle to reach flattened villages.
Kunar province suffered the heaviest losses, while Nangarhar and Laghman also reported severe damage.
Provincial disaster chief Ehsanullah Ehsan said teams were expanding operations into mountainous areas. “We cannot predict how many bodies remain trapped under the rubble,” he told reporters. “Our priority is to finish rescue work quickly and begin aid distribution.”
Authorities transferred some of the wounded to hospitals in Kabul and Nangarhar.
The magnitude 6 quake struck just before midnight Sunday, making it one of Afghanistan’s deadliest in years. The epicenter lay near the Pakistani border, where mud-brick homes collapsed in remote villages.
Blocked mountain roads have slowed relief efforts. “Access with vehicles remains our biggest obstacle,” Ehsan said.
Homa Nader, acting deputy head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Afghanistan, said road destruction made rescue work “nearly impossible.”
She said heavy machinery had been deployed to clear routes, but teams still could not reach the hardest-hit areas. “It is absolutely likely the death toll will rise because we are not getting to the most remote villages yet,” Al Jazeera quoted Nader as saying.
Afghanistan sits at the collision point of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, making it prone to earthquakes. In October 2023, a quake in Herat province killed more than 2,000 people.
