According to a report published on Wednesday by the state-run Bakhtar news agency of Afghanistan, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake slammed southern Afghanistan overnight, resulting in the deaths of 255 people.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake occurred around 45 kilometres to the southwest of the province seat of Khost, which is located in the southeast of the nation. According to the government, the earthquake occurred early on Wednesday morning at a depth of around six miles.
According to Raees Hozaifa, the director of information and culture in the eastern province of Paktika, the earthquake has hit numerous different regions, and the death toll in Paktika alone is at least 250 people.
“We have 250 corpses, roughly 150 injured,” he claimed, adding that over 100 houses had been demolished throughout four districts of the province as a result of the violence that had taken place. He said that there was an attempt being made to rescue people.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicentre of this earthquake was around 480 kilometres (300 miles) north-northeast of where a catastrophic 6.4-magnitude earthquake occurred in Pakistan in 2008.
According to a map that was published on the website of the European Mediterranean Seismological Center, the quake that occurred on Wednesday was felt in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, as well as in the northern section of the neighbouring country of Pakistan. The United States Geological Survey reported that about an hour later, a second earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale occurred about 30 miles to the southwest of Khost.
Earthquakes provide another another danger to the people living in Afghanistan, who have been living in a nation that has been at war for decades.
At least 27 people were killed and hundreds of houses were destroyed when two earthquakes slammed a remote mountainous region of western Afghanistan in the month of January, according to the official statements made at the time.