Many people are believed to have died when a strong earthquake occurred in western Afghanistan, close to the border with Iran.
Some people think that more people have died than what has been officially reported. On Saturday, a very strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6. 3 caused a lot of destruction in at least 12 villages close to the city of Herat.
There were strong shaking that happened after an earthquake. The survivors were very scared as the buildings fell down near them.
Rescue workers worked all night to find people who were stuck under the pile of debris.
Many people have gotten hurt.
In a country with very limited hospitals, it is difficult for them to take care of the injured patients. The UN and other groups have started to send urgent aid.
The earthquake hit an area about 40km (25 miles) away from Herat, in the north-west region. It happened at around 11:00 in the morning, according to the local time, which is 06:30 in the morning based on GMT. The earthquake occurred on Saturday.
We were at work when the building suddenly began to shake. The wall plaster started to come off and there were cracks in the walls. Some walls and parts of the building fell down, a resident named Bashir Ahmad said.
I cannot reach my family. “I feel really anxious and afraid, it was really frightening,” he said.
The public health minister of the Taliban is going to Herat to see how much damage has been caused.
A video from Herat Central Hospital showed injured people getting medical treatment outside the main building using tubes connected to their bodies. This shows that there were too many injured people needing urgent care all at once.
Other pictures display destroyed areas in Herat’s Injil district where debris is blocking the roads, making it difficult to carry out rescue operations.
“The situation was really bad, and I have never experienced anything like it,” student Idrees Arsala told AFP. He was the last person to leave his classroom safely when the earthquakes started.
Herat is a city in Afghanistan that is known for its culture and is found 120km (or 75 miles) to the east of the Iranian border. It is thought that around 1. 9 million people live in the province.
Afghanistan often experiences earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range. This happens because it is located close to where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.
Last year in June, the province of Paktika experienced a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 5. 9The earthquake caused over 1,000 deaths and many people lost their homes, leaving them without shelter.