Earthquake in Afghanistan: at least six dead and nine injured

At least six people died and nine were injured as a result of a earthquake of magnitude 5.3 recorded early Monday morning in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan, the Afghan government said.

“An earthquake was recorded at 2:30 am in the provinces of Kabul, Laghman, Kunar and Nangarhar,” said Deputy Minister for Natural Disasters Sharafuddin Muslim.

The official also said so “Six people were killed” and that nine have suffered injuries in Kunar province. “

“We are gathering information in other regions to find out if there are other victims and assess the damage,” he added.

The new earthquake occurred less than three months after the worst earthquake in more than two decades in Afghanistan, on June 22 in the southeast, with a magnitude of 5.9 and which resulted in more than a thousand deaths.

This phenomenon also occurred in the east of the country, in a remote area, near the border with Pakistan, where the population already lives in very precarious conditions, and has surprised people to death while they were sleeping.

It was reported about 46 kilometers from the city of Khost, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, according to the US Geological Survey agency.

While most of the deaths were reported in Paktika province, the districts of Barmala, Ziruk, Naka and Gayan were the hardest hit by the earthquake.

Afghanistan often suffers from earthquakesparticularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, located at the intersection of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

China also suffered earthquakes

A On Monday, the 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck southwest Chinaa mountainous area in Sichuan province prone to earthquakes, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The tremor was felt at 12:52 local time and had its epicenter 200km southwest of Chengdu city, with a depth of 10km, the USGS said. No casualties or material damage were initially reported.

The movement made itself felt in the city of Chengdu, the provincial capital which has more than 20 million inhabitants.

According to the scale used by Chinese seismological authorities, a magnitude 6 earthquake means that most of those affected cannot stand firmly during the earthquake and cracks in walls and collapse of tiles and chimneys can occur.

sichuan province located in an area with frequent seismic activity and was the scene of a catastrophic earthquake in May 2008, with a magnitude of 8 degrees and which caused more than 90,000 dead and missing.

In recent weeks, Sichuan has also been hit by a heat wave of unprecedented intensity in decades, a drought that has caused power outages in some areas, fires and covid epidemics that have led to the confinement of its capital.

With information from agencies.

IS