New Delhi: At least 26 people are reported to have been killed in Monday’s earthquake in western Afghanistan. Province spokesman Baz Mohamed Sarwe said the victims were killed when the roof of their homes collapsed in the Qadis district of the western province of Badghis.
According to the US Geological Survey, the magnitude of the earthquake was 5.3 on the Richter scale.
#Update At least 26 people were killed in the quake that struck western Afghanistan, an official said.
A spokesman for the province told AFP that the victims were killed when roofs of their homes collapsed in the Qadis district of the western province of Badghis. https://t.co/H27MNnv6Vp pic.twitter.com/Xw5b0fN8yC
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) 17 January 2022
“Of the 26 people killed in the quake, five are women and four are children,” Sarvari said. He said four more people were injured.
He further said that residents of Mukar, another district in the province, were also damaged by the quake, but details including casualties were still not available.
The report noted that Qadis is one of the regions worst hit by the devastating drought and has received an insignificant gain from the international aid it has received over the past 20 years.
“Afghanistan is already in the grip of a humanitarian disaster, worsened by the Taliban’s takeover of the country in August, when Western countries blocked access to international aid and assets held abroad,” the report noted.
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Afghanistan is an earthquake prone country. Particularly regions of the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lie near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, are highly vulnerable to earthquakes.
The earthquake can cause heavy damage to poorly constructed homes and buildings in Afghanistan.
In 2015, a powerful earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale killed about 280 people with its epicenter in the mountain range, which erupted across South Asia and caused widespread deaths in Pakistan.
A powerful earthquake killed 12 young Afghan girls in a stampede as they tried to escape from a shaking school building.
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