ISLAMABAD, Pakistan and LONDON — The demise toll from the earthquake in jap Afghanistan, which all however destroyed a number of villages, rose on Tuesday to not less than 1,411 individuals, a authorities spokesperson mentioned.
One other 3,124 have been injured within the 6.0 magnitude quake, which struck simply earlier than midnight on Sunday, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson, mentioned on social media.
“Rescue operations are nonetheless underway in all of the affected areas in the present day,” Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson, mentioned on Tuesday. “Dozens of commandos have been airlifted to areas the place planes couldn’t land to tug out the injured from the rubble and transport them to an appropriate location.”
Amid rescue efforts, a second 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck jap Afghanistan on Tuesday about 20 miles northeast of Jalalabad, in line with the USGS.
Afghan volunteers and Taliban safety personnel work to maneuver injured individuals close to a navy helicopter following earthquakes within the Mazar Dara village of Nurgal, a district of the Kunar Province, in Japanese Afghanistan, on Sept. 1, 2025.
Wakil Kohsar/AFP through Getty Photos
Shah Mahmood, a Taliban official in Nangarhar Province, mentioned the quake on Sunday destroyed some 8,000 homes. Emergency responders have but to achieve some villages, the place they concern there could also be extra useless and injured underneath the rubble, he mentioned.
Sunday’s {powerful} earthquake’s epicenter was about 17 miles east of Jalalabad, in line with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Nearly the entire deaths have been in Kunar Province, officers mentioned in an announcement shared Monday by Zabihullah Mujahid, a authorities spokesperson. Others have been killed in Nangarhar Province, mentioned Mufti Abdul Matin Qani, spokesperson for the Ministry of Inside.
An Afghan injured man receives intravenous drips in a corn subject, after earthquakes at Mazar Dara village in Nurgal district, Kunar province, in Japanese Afghanistan, on September 1, 2025.
Wakil Kohsar/AFP through Getty Photos
Lethal earthquakes have struck Afghanistan a number of occasions lately, together with a 5.9 magnitude quake in June 2022 and a 6.3 magnitude one in October 2023. The demise toll for every of these quakes rose to over 1,000 individuals, native officers mentioned of their aftermaths.
Earthquakes are widespread in each jap and western Afghanistan, the place the India plate and the Eurasia plate intersect beneath the Hindu Kush mountains vary, in line with USGS.
“Since 1950, 71 different magnitude 6 or bigger earthquakes occurred inside 250 km of the August 31 earthquake, together with six magnitude 7 and bigger earthquakes,” USGS mentioned in a summary of the exercise it recorded throughout Sunday’s quake and the aftershocks.
The primary robust quake struck at about 11:47 p.m. native time on Sunday and was adopted by 4 weaker-but-still-powerful aftershocks into Monday, the USGS mentioned. These aftershocks measured 5.2, 5.2, 4.7 and 4.6, the group mentioned.
An estimated 12,000 individuals have been immediately affected by Sunday’s, in line with the World Well being Group in Afghanistan.
The toughest hit districts and villages in Kunar have been Chawkay, Nurgal, Chapa Dara, Dara-e-Pech and Watapur, the WHO mentioned in a report dated Monday. Constructions in different villages in Nangarhar and Laghman provinces have been additionally broken, the report mentioned.
“As the size of devastation from the Afghanistan earthquake turns into clearer, my deepest condolences go to the victims and their households,” Richard Bennett, the U.N. particular rapporteur for the nation, mentioned on social media on Tuesday.
An man Afghan walks previous a broken home following earthquakes within the Mazar Dara village of Nurgal, a district of the Kunar Province, in Japanese Afghanistan, on September 1, 2025.
Wakil Kohsar/AFP through Getty Photos
Most of the well being amenities within the affected areas seemed to be “purposeful” after the quake, the WHO mentioned, including that its native workers have been working on-site at a number of places within the area, together with Nangarhar Regional Hospital.
At that hospital in Nangarhar, a number of injured kids have been being handled with out their mother and father or family, in line with a spokesperson for the Ministry of Well being.
“These are painful and insufferable moments,” Dr. Sharafat zaman Amar, the spokesperson, said in a social media publish that included photos of a number of kids with seen accidents and bandages.
ABC Information’ Will Gretsky, Somayeh Malekian and Othon Leyva contributed to this report.
