Casualties feared after magnitude-6.3 earthquake hits Afghanistan
An earthquake occurred in northern Afghanistan, near Mazar-i Sharif, one of the country’s largest cities, around 20:30 GMT (01:00) local time.
The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.3 and a depth of 28 km (17 miles), according to the US Geological Survey.
The agency also warned of “significant losses” and “potentially widespread” disaster.
A Taliban spokesman in Balkh, whose capital is Mazar-e-Sharif, said in a post on X around 02:00 local time (21:30 GMT) that they had received “reports of minor injuries and superficial damage from all parts of the province.”
“Most injuries were caused by people falling from tall buildings,” he wrote.
Mazar-e-Sharif is home to more than 500,000 people. According to AFP, most of the city’s residents flocked to the streets because they feared their homes would collapse during the earthquake.
The Taliban spokesman in Balkh also released a video showing debris strewn across the ground at the Blue Mosque, a local landmark in X’in Mazar-e-Sharif.
The religious complex is believed to contain the tomb of the first Shia Imam, a religious leader believed to have divine knowledge. It is now a place where pilgrims gather to pray or celebrate religious events.
Monday’s earthquake follows a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan’s mountainous eastern region in late August that killed more than 1,000 people.
Afghanistan is very sensitive to earthquakes because it is located on many fault lines where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
