622 dead as strong earthquake hits Afghanistan close to Pakistan border

More than 600 people were killed and over 1,500 injured 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 the South Asian 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 622 people in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, the Taliban-run Afghan interior ministry said, with more than 1,500 injured and numerous houses destroyed.

"All our ... teams have been mobilised to accelerate assistance, so that comprehensive and full support can be provided," ministry spokesperson Abdul Maten Qanee told Reuters, citing efforts in areas from security to food and health.

In Kabul, the capital, health authorities said rescuers were racing to reach remote hamlets dotting an area with a long history of earthquakes and floods.

The earthquake was Afghanistan's deadliest since June 2022, when tremors of magnitude 6.1 killed at least 1,000 people.

Images from Reuters Television showed helicopters ferrying out the affected, while residents helped soldiers and medics carry the wounded to ambulances.

The quake razed three villages in Kunar, with substantial damage in many others, authorities said. At least 610 people were killed in Kunar with 12 dead in Nangarhar, they added.

Rescuers were scrambling to find survivors in the area bordering Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, where homes of mud and stone were levelled by the midnight quake that hit at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).

Military rescue teams fanned out across the two provinces, the defence ministry said in a statement, adding that 40 flights had carried out 420 wounded and dead.

"So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work," a foreign office spokesperson said.

Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, underscoring the vulnerability of one of the world's poorest countries to natural disasters.