Herat, Afghanistan, Oct 11 (EFE).- At least 50 people were injured as a fresh 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook western Afghanistan on Wednesday amid rescue operations for victims of another quake and subsequent aftershocks that have left over 2,400 dead and more than 2,000 injured in the country.
“Around 50 people were wounded in today’s earthquake in different parts of Herat city,” a doctor from the Herat Regional Hospital, who preferred to remain anonymous, told EFE on board one of the emergency ambulances transporting the victims.
The earthquake, which had a depth of 10 kilometers (6.21 miles), was recorded 28 kilometers north-northwest of the city of Herat, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The earthquake was followed by two others of magnitude 5.0 and 4.1 with very close epicenters.
The new tremor occurs after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake devastated western Afghanistan on Saturday, mainly affecting the Zinda Jan district, located in Herat province, where the authorities have confirmed 2,400 deaths and more than 2,000 injured so far.
Some 12,110 people, including 1,730 families, have been affected by the quake across five districts of Herat province, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported Tuesday.
According to estimates by the de facto Taliban government, there have been some 4,500 casualties, Natural Disaster Management Ministry spokesperson Mullah Janan Sayeq told reporters on Monday night.
“It is difficult to know the exact number of deaths and injuries as of now,” he said, adding that a total of 20 villages were completely destroyed in the quake.
Saturday’s earthquake was the third deadliest earthquake to hit the Asian country since 1998 and the worst since the Taliban took over in mid-August 2021. EFE
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