Death toll from Saturday’s magnitude 6.3 earthquake that hit Western Afghanistan climbed to at least 2053, officials of the ruling Taliban said on Sunday.
Al Jazeera reported that men were digging through rubble with their bare hands and shovels in desperate attempts to pull victims from the wreckage left by powerful earthquakes.
Ruling Taliban officials said at least 2,053 people died and nearly 10,000 sustained injuries while the tremor destroyed more than 1,300 houses.
Saturday’s magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit a densely populated area near Herat, Afghanistan’s fourth largest city. Strong aftershocks followed the earthquakes.
The death toll eclipses an earthquake that hit eastern Afghanistan in June last year.
It struck a rugged, mountainous region, flattening stone and mud-brick homes and killing at least 1,000 people.
“Most people were shocked. … Some couldn’t even talk. But others couldn’t stop crying and shouting,” Associated Press photographer Omid Haqjoo said.
At least a dozen teams are helping with the rescue effort, officials from the military and nonprofit organisations such as the Red Crescent said.
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Irfanullah Sharafzai, spokesman for the Afghan Red Crescent Society, said seven teams were busy with rescue efforts while others were arriving from eight nearby provinces.
The group has set up a temporary camp for the displaced, Sharafzai said.
The International Organisation for Migration, a United Nations agency, deployed four ambulances with doctors and psychosocial support counsellors to the regional hospital.
At least three mobile health teams were on their way to the Zenda Jan district, one of the worst-hit areas.
Doctors Without Borders set up five medical tents at Herat Regional Hospital to accommodate up to 80 patients.
Authorities have treated more than 300 patients, according to the agency.
As temperatures dropped, UNICEF dispatched thousands of supplies, including winter clothes, blankets and tarpaulins.
Some aid groups, like the World Food Programme, were already on the scene with essential items. (Al Jazeera)
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