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A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck northern Afghanistan overnight Sunday into Monday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, two months after a tremor in the impoverished nation’s east killed over 2,200 people. Seven people were killed and 150 injured in the quake, the local health directorate said on Monday. The USGS issued an orange alert in its PAGER system, which is an automated system that produces information on the impact of earthquakes, and indicated that “significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread”. The earthquake hit at a depth of 28km (17.4 miles) near Mazar-e Sharif, which has a population of about 523,000, according to USGS. It was felt in the capital Kabul. In Mazar-e Sharif, many people ran into the street in the middle of the night, fearing their homes might collapse, an Agence France-Presse correspondent observed. Videos of rescue efforts being carried out to save people trapped under rubble and images of fallen debris in buildings were shared on the social media platform X. The Taliban authorities have had to deal with several major earthquakes since returning to power in 2021, including one in 2023 in the western Herat region on the border with Iran that killed more than 1,500 people and destroyed more than 63,000 homes. A shallow magnitude 6 earthquake struck this year on August 31 in the country’s east, killing more than 2,200 people - the deadliest tremor in recent Afghan history. Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range, near where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet. Afghanistan is contending with multiple crises after decades of war: endemic poverty, severe drought and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back home by neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. Many modest Afghan homes are shoddily built and poor infrastructure hampers rescue efforts after natural disasters such as earthquakes. Since 1900, northeastern Afghanistan has been hit by 12 earthquakes with a magnitude above 7, according to Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey. Additional reporting by Reuters
