Rescuers race to remote areas after Afghan quake kills 1,124

The death toll in Afghanistan’s earthquake has risen to 1,124, the Afghan Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian group working in the region, said on Tuesday.

At least 3,251 people have been injured and more than 8,000 houses have been destroyed in the disaster, the group said.

Rescuers will try to reach isolated villages in the eastern region of Kunar, the epicentre of an earthquake, one of the deadliest seismic activity nation has witnessed. 

Rescue operations were carried out in four villages in Kunar after the quake struck and efforts will now be focused on reaching more remote mountain areas, said Ehsanullah Ehsan, the provincial head of disaster management.

“We cannot accurately predict how many bodies might still be trapped under the rubble,” said Ehsan. “Our effort is to complete these operations as soon as possible and to begin distributing aid to the affected families.”

One of Afghanistan’s worst earthquakes, with a magnitude of 6, struck around midnight local time on Monday, at a shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles), killing 812 people in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar.

Mountainous terrain and inclement weather have hindered rescuers reaching remote areas along the Pakistani border where the quake flattened mudbrick homes.