At least 60 people were killed after a powerful earthquake rattled northern Afghanistan. It also injured hundreds and damaged “one the country’s most beautiful mosques,” reports CNN. On Monday, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck near Mazar-i-Sharif, the biggest city in northern Afghanistan. CNN adds that
A massive search and rescue operation is underway, with a child seen pulled alive from the rubble in the north of the country in video released by the Ministry of Defense on Monday morning. The girl was taken to hospital in a critical condition…
Mazar-i-Sharif’s iconic Blue Mosque was damaged in the quake…with its base littered with rubble…The site is one of Afghanistan’s architectural treasures and a major point of pilgrimage, believed by some to be the resting place of Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam and the son-in-law of Prophet Mohammad.
Residents in at least nine provinces, including Kabul, lost power after electricity lines from Uzbekistan – a major supplier of power to Afghanistan – were severed.
The state-run energy company DABS also reported cut lines from Tajikistan to Kunduz province, plunging the area into total blackout….More than 600 people [were] injured across the Samangan, Balkh, Sar-e-Pul, Kunduz and Jawzjan provinces….casualties could rise further as “search and rescue operations are still ongoing.”
On August 31, an earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed over 1,000 people, in the provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar, and Laghman. In Kunar province alone some 250 people were reported killed and more than 500 others wounded.
“Afghanistan sits on a seismic fault line where the Indian and Eurasian plates collide, making it one of Asia’s most earthquake-prone countries. Quakes frequently devastate the east and northeast, where fragile mud-brick homes collapse easily and rescue efforts are slowed by rugged terrain and poor infrastructure.”
