Earthquake in Afghanistan leaves at least 1,000 dead and 1,500 injured
Afghanistan a landlocked country at the interface of South Asia, Central Asia and the Near East, bordering Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, the People’s Republic of China and Pakistan.
Afghan emergency officer Sharafuddin Muslim reported Wednesday morning that the quake is the deadliest since 2002, when a magnitude 6.1 quake killed about 1,000 people in northern Afghanistan.
For his part, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif offered his condolences and said his nation will provide aid to the Afghan people.
This earthquake is the most serious by number of victims recorded in these two countries since October 2005, when an earthquake in Kashmir, a border region between India and Pakistan, left 55,000 dead in the Pakistani area and another 1,400 fatalities in India.
The seismic movement, with its epicenter near the city of Muzaffarabad, which was destroyed, also caused 80,000 injuries in the Pakistani area.
A powerful 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan, leaving at least 1,000 dead and 1,500 injured, according to the state news agency.