POWERFUL earthquakes killed at least 2,000 people in western Afghanistan, a Taliban Government spokesman said on Sunday. It’s one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades. The figures couldn’t be independently verified. The magnitude-6.3 earthquake was followed by strong aftershocks on Saturday, a spokesperson for the country’s National Disaster Management Authority said. The United States Geological Survey said, the quake’s epicentre was about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north-west of Herat city. It was followed by three very strong aftershocks, measuring magnitude 6.3, 5.9 and 5.5, as well as lesser shocks. On Sunday, people attempted to dig out the dead and injured with their hands in Herat, clambering over rocks and debris.

 

Survivors and victims were trapped under buildings that had crumbled to the ground, their faces grey with dust. One video, shared online, shows people freeing a baby girl from a collapsed building after being buried up to her neck in debris. A hand is seen cradling the baby’s torso as rescuers ease the child out of the ground. Rescuers said it was the baby’s mother. Abdul Wahid Rayan, a spokesman at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said on Sunday the death toll is higher than originally reported. Villages have been destroyed, and hundreds of civilians are buried under the debris, he said while calling for urgent help.