Afghanistan quake kills 20, injures over 300: health ministry

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, November 4 ------ A strong earthquake killed at least 20 people in northern Afghanistan, authorities said just months after another deadly tremor that left the country reeling. The 6.3-magnitude quake struck overnight at a depth of 28 kilometers with the epicenter near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to the US Geological Survey.

More than 20 people were killed and around 320 were injured in the provinces of Balkh and Samangan, health ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman told journalists on Monday morning, stressing that this was a preliminary toll.

Residents of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of Afghanistan’s largest northern ci­ties, scrambled into the streets due to fears their homes would collapse, an AFP correspondent observed. The city’s famed Blue Mosque, a 15th-century landmark known for its vibrant tiles, was also damaged, an AFP journalist witnessed. Pieces of the structure, particularly from one of its minarets, broke off and lay scattered across the mosque’s grounds, one of the country’s few remaining tourist spots. Correspondents in the capital Kabul, around 420 kilometers to the south, also said they felt shaking.

Poor communication networks and infrastructure in mountainous Afghanistan have hampered disaster responses in the past, preventing authorities for hours or even days from reaching far-flung villages to assess the extent of the damage. It is the latest natural disaster for the Taliban government, which has faced three major deadly earthquakes since taking over Afghanistan in 2021, even as the foreign aid that formed the backbone of the country’s economy has dramatically dropped.

Source: manilatimes.net