Islamabad, Nov 4, (dpa/GNA) – Several countries as well as the European Union, have offered their condolences after a powerful earthquake, struck northern Afghanistan, killing 20 people and injuring hundreds, according to official reports.
The country’s national disaster management authority said 20 people have died and 643 were wounded, revising down earlier figures reported by the state-run news agency Bakhtar, which had put the death toll of the overnight quake at 27, with more than 700 injured.
Pakistan, India, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom on Monday, expressed their sympathies for the loss of life and the people of Afghanistan.
Hadja Lahbib, the EU’s Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, called the news “heartbreaking,” saying the bloc “stands in solidarity with the Afghan people.”
“Our EU humanitarian staff & partners on the ground are assessing the needs to provide support,” she wrote on X.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, announced aid deliveries. Neighbouring Iran also expressed its readiness to participate in search and rescue operations for the victims.
The worst-affected area was Balkh province, according to authorities. A resident of the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, speaking to state-run television RTA at the hospital, said he had not experienced a tremor of this intensity before. He said he had to jump out of a window, breaking his leg.
The historic Blue Mosque of Mazar-e-Sharif was also damaged. A video from TOLOnews shows debris on the ground around the building. Citing officials, the Afghan broadcaster reported that around 800 houses were destroyed or damaged in Badakhshan province.
Afghanistan’s power utility company reported that the earthquake damaged power pylons, leaving Kabul and several other provinces in the dark. The company later said that one power pylon carrying imported electricity from Tajikistan had been reconnected.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake hit Balkh province at a depth of 28 kilometres.
Residents told dpa that tremors were also felt in the capital, Kabul. The tremor struck just two months after more than 2,000 people were killed by a devastating quake in the country’s east.
The Taliban government, in a statement, expressed sympathy for the affected families and said, all relevant institutions had been directed to urgently deliver medical, food and other essential assistance to the affected areas.
GNA