More than 800 people were killed in one of Afghanistan's worst earthquakes, authorities said on Monday, as helicopters ferried the wounded to hospital after they were plucked from rubble being combed for survivors.
The disaster will further stretch the resources of nation already grappling with humanitarian crises, from a sharp drop in aid to a huge pushback of its citizens from neighbouring countries.
The quake of magnitude 6 killed at least 800 people and another 2,500 were injured in Kunar province, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a press conference in the capital Kabul. While he updated the casualty count for Kunar, he noted that the toll of 12 dead and 255 injured in Nangarhar province had not changed.
In Kabul, health authorities said rescuers were racing to reach remote hamlets dotting an area with a long history of earthquakes and floods.
The worst earthquake to hit Afghanistan in years has killed more than 1,400 people, the Taliban says, with more than 3,000 others injured as different conditions hinder rescue efforts in remote areas.
Sunday's magnitude-6.0 quake has killed at least 1,411 people and injured another 3,124, with some 5,400 houses destroyed, Taliban administration spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
The Afghan Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian group working in the region, said many people are still trapped under the rubble.
The United Nations has warned the number killed is likely to rise and that the number of people impacted could reach the hundreds of thousands.
"We cannot afford to forget the people of Afghanistan who are facing multiple crises, multiple shocks, and the resilience of the communities has been saturated," Indrika Ratwatte, the UN's resident coordinator for Afghanistan, told a media briefing on Tuesday.
He urged the international community to step forward.
Rescuers have recovered hundreds of bodies from mountainous areas of southeastern Afghanistan, which was hit by a major earthquake at the weekend, taking the death toll to more than 2,200, according to a Taliban government spokesperson.
Previous estimates said some 1,400 people were killed. Taliban spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said on Thursday that the updated death toll was 2,205.
Comment: Update September 2
abc.net.au reports: Update September 4
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