Afghanistan is frequently affected by earthquakes (Representative)
Herat, Afghanistan:
At least 26 people were killed after an earthquake in western Afghanistan on Monday, an official said.
Baz province spokesman Mohammad Sarwary told AFP that victims died when their roofs collapsed in Qadis district in western Badghis province.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the shallow quake had a magnitude of 5.3 on the richter scale.
“Five women and four children were among the 26 people killed in the earthquake,” Sarwary said, adding that four others were injured.
The quake also caused damage to people in the province’s Muqr district, but details of casualties were not yet available, he said.
Afghanistan is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster, made worse when the Taliban took over the country in August as Western countries froze international aid and access to assets abroad.
Qadis is one of the regions hardest hit by the devastating drought, which has benefited little from international aid over the past 20 years.
The country is regularly hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush Mountains, which are located near the intersection of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Earthquakes can cause significant damage to shabby homes and structures in Afghanistan.
In 2015, nearly 280 people were killed when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake centered in the mountains ripped through South Asia, with most of the deaths in Pakistan.
In that disaster, 12 young Afghan girls were crushed to death in a stampede as they tried to flee their shaking school.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
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