Islamabad, Pakistan and London – the number of the earthquake in East Afghanistan, which almost destroyed several villages, increased at least 1,411 people on Tuesday, said a government spokesman.
Other 3,124 were injured in the earthquake of magnitude 6.0, which hit just before midnight on Sunday, said Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman, on social networks.
“Rescue operations are still underway in all areas affected today,” Hamdullah Fitrat, vice president, the vice president, said Tuesday. “Doctors of commands have been transferred by plane to areas where airplanes could not land to get the wounded out of the debris and transport them to adequate location.”
In the midst of rescue efforts, a second earthquake of magnitude 5.2 hit the east of East Afghanistan on Tuesday about 20 miles northeast of Jalalabad, according to the USGS.
Afghan volunteers and Taliban security staff work to move injured people near a military helicopter after earthquakes in the Mazar Dara de Nurgal village, a district of the Kunar province, in eastern Afghanistan, on September 1, 2025.
Deputy Kohsar/AFP through Getty Images
Shah Mahmood, a Taliban official in the province of Nangarhar, said the earthquake destroyed about 8,000 houses. Emergency responders have not yet reached some villages, where they fear there may be more dead and wounded under the debris, he said.
The powerful epicenter of Sunday’s earthquake was about 17 miles east of Jalalabad, according to the United States geological service.
Almost all deaths were in the province of Kunar, authorities said in a statement shared Monday by Zabihullah Mjahid, a government spokesman. Others were killed in the province of Nangarhar, said Mufti Abdul Matin Qani, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.
An Afghan wounded man receives intravenous drops in a corn field, after earthquakes in the village of Mazar Dara in the district of Nurgal, province of Kunar, in eastern Afghanistan, on September 1, 2025.
Deputy Kohsar/AFP through Getty Images
Mortal earthquakes have attacked Afghanistan several times in recent years, including an earthquake of magnitude of 5.9 in June 2022 and a magnitude of 6.3 in October 2023. The number of deaths for each of those earthquakes increased to more than 1,000 people, local officials said in their sequelae.
The earthquakes are common both in the east and western Afghanistan, where the Indian plate and the Eurasia plate cross under the range of Kush Hindu mountains, according to USGS.
“Since 1950, another 71 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more occurred within 250 km of the earthquake of August 31, including six earthquakes of magnitude 7 and larger,” said USGS in A summary of the activity that registered during Sunday’s earthquake and replicas.
The first strong earthquake arrived at 11:47 pm local time on Sunday and was followed by four weakest but impotent replicas until Monday, said the USGS. These replicas measured 5.2, 5.2, 4.7 and 4.6, the organization said.
It is estimated that 12,000 people have been directly affected by Sunday, according to the World Health Organization in Afghanistan.
The most affected districts and peoples in Kunar were Chawkay, Nurgal, Chapa Dara, Dara-E-PECH and Watapur, who said in a report dated Monday. The structures in other villages in the provinces of Nangarhar and Laghman were also damaged, according to the report.
“As the Devastation scale of the Afghanistan earthquake becomes clearer, my deepest condolences go to the victims and their families,” said Richard Bennett, the UN special relative for the country, he said In social networks Tuesday.
An Afghan man spends a damaged house after earthquakes in the town of Nurgal de Mazar Dara, a district of the province of Kunar, in eastern Afghanistan, on September 1, 2025.
Deputy Kohsar/AFP through Getty Images
Many of the health centers in the affected regions seemed to be “functional” after the earthquake, the WHO said, adding that its local staff was working on the site in several places in the region, including the Regional Hospital of Nangarhar.
In that Nangarhar hospital, several injured children were treated without their parents or relatives, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Health.
“These are painful and unbearable moments,” Dr. Sharafat Zaman Amar, the spokesman, saying In a publication on social networks that included images of several children with visible injuries and bandages.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Somayeh Malekian and Othon Leyva contributed to this report.
