Earthquake in Afghanistan: 255 dead and many wounded in terror – World News

According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake struck about 44 km (27 miles) from the city of Khost, near the Pakistan border, at a depth of 51 km

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Afghanistan early Wednesday killed at least 255 people and injured many more.

The quake struck about 44 km (27 miles) from the city of Khost, near the Pakistan border, at a depth of 51 km, the US Geological Survey said.

A resident of the Afghan capital Kabul wrote on the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) website, describing “strong and prolonged tremors”.

“It was strong,” said a resident of the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

About 119 million people in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India felt the tremors, the EMSC said on Twitter.

State-run Bakhtar news agency reported a death toll of at least 255 early Wednesday morning and said rescuers had arrived by helicopter.

In Paktika, 90 houses were destroyed, Abdul Wahid Rayan, the news agency’s director general, wrote on Twitter.

And photos in Afghan media showed crumbling houses.

Dozens of people are said to have been trapped under the rubble.

The head of the Taliban government’s Natural Disasters Ministry, Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, said the majority of the deaths occurred in Paktika province.

Investigations would be carried out to determine if there had been other victims, he said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in Pakistan.

The disaster came as Afghanistan was going through a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took power in August, when US-led international forces withdrew after two decades of war.

In response to the Taliban takeover, many governments have imposed sanctions on the Afghan banking sector and cut billions of dollars in development aid.