Sawt Falasteen - Afghanistan quake kills 20, injures over 300: health ministry

The 6.3-magnitude quake struck overnight at a depth of 28 kilometers (17 miles) with the epicentre near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to the US Geological Survey.

More than 20 people were killed and around 320 were injured in the provinces of Balkh and Samangan, health ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman told journalists on Monday morning, stressing that this was a preliminary toll.

He did not provide a province-wide breakdown of the casualties.

Residents of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of Afghanistan's largest northern cities, scrambled into the streets due to fears their homes would collapse, an AFP correspondent observed.

The city's famed Blue Mosque, a 15th-century landmark known for its vibrant tiles, was also damaged, an AFP journalist witnessed.

Pieces of the structure, particularly from one of its minarets, broke off and lay scattered across the mosque's grounds, one of the country's few remaining tourist spots.

Correspondents in the capital Kabul, around 420 kilometres to the south, also said they felt shaking.

Poor communication networks and infrastructure in mountainous Afghanistan have hampered disaster responses in the past, preventing authorities for hours or even days from reaching far-flung villages to assess the extent of the damage.

It is the latest natural disaster for the Taliban government, which has faced three major deadly earthquakes since taking over Afghanistan in 2021, even as the foreign aid that formed the backbone of the country's economy has dramatically dropped.

In August, a shallow 6.0-magnitude quake in the country's east wiped out mountainside villages and killed more than 2,200 people.

Large tremors in western Herat, near the Iranian border, in 2023, and in eastern Nangarhar province in 2022 killed hundreds and destroyed thousands of homes.

The United Nations and aid agencies have warned hunger is rising among the Afghan population.

The isolated country is suffering from a humanitarian crisis compounded by drought, economic restrictions on the banking sector, and the pushback of millions of Afghan citizens from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan.

Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range, near where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.

Many homes in the predominantly rural country -- devastated by decades of war -- are shoddily built.

It often takes hours or days to travel by steep roads and paths to remote villages, which are often cut off from help during disasters or poor weather.

R.Shaban--SF-PST