Strong earthquake shakes Afghanistan, destroys villages in eastern Afghanistan, kills 800 people, 2,500 injured
01-Sep-2025.
A magnitude of 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan in the dead of the night on September 1 leaving people desperate and clawing through rubble in search of missing loved ones after a strong earthquake killed nearly 800 people and injuring more than 2,500 in eastern Afghanistan, according to the Taliban government.
The 6.0 magnitude quake late August 31 hit towns in the province of Kunar, near the city of Jalalabad in neighboring Nangarhar province, causing extensive damage.
The quake at 11:47 p.m. was centered 27 kilometers (17 miles) east-northeast of Jalalabad, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was just 8 kilometers (5 miles) deep. Shallower quakes tend to cause more damage. Several aftershocks followed.
Footage showed rescuers taking injured people on stretchers from collapsed buildings and into helicopters as people frantically dug through rubble with their hands.
Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban government’s chief spokesman, said at a press conference on September 1 that the death toll had risen to at least 800 with more than 2,500 injured. He said most of the casualties were in Kunar.
Buildings in Afghanistan tend to be low-rise constructions, mostly of concrete and brick, with homes in rural and outlying areas made from mud bricks and wood. Many are poorly built.
Nearly the entire village was destroyed said one resident in Nurgal district, one of the worst-affected areas in Kunar.
A villager, who did not give his name said, “Children are under the rubble. The elderly are under the rubble. Young people are under the rubble”.
‘He pleaded, “We need help here, we need people to come here and join us. Let us pull out the people who are buried. There is no one who can come and remove dead bodies from under the rubble”.
People screamed for help homes collapsed
Eastern Afghanistan is mountainous, with remote areas.
The quake has worsened communications. Blocked roads are forcing aid workers to walk four or five hours to reach survivors. Dozens of flights have operated in and out of Nangarhar Airport, transporting the injured to hospital.
One survivor described seeing homes collapse before his eyes and people screaming for help.
I was woken by a deep boom that sounded like a storm approaching, said, Sadiqullah, like many Afghans, he uses only one name said, who lives in the Maza Dara area of Nurgal.
He ran to where his children were sleeping and rescued three of them. He was about to return to grab the rest of his family when the room fell on top of him.
“I was half-buried and unable to get out,” he told The Associated Press by phone from Nangarhar Hospital. “My wife and two sons are dead, and my father is injured and in hospital with me. We were trapped for three to four hours until people from other areas arrived and pulled me out.”
It felt like the whole mountain was shaking, he said.
Rescue operations were underway and medical teams from Kunar, Nangarhar and the capital Kabul have arrived in the area, said Sharafat Zaman, a health ministry spokesman.
Zaman said many areas had not been able to report casualty figures and that “the numbers were expected to change” as deaths and injuries are reported. The chief spokesman, Mujahid, said helicopters had reached some areas but road travel was difficult.
“There are some villages where the injured and dead haven’t been recovered from the rubble, so that’s why the numbers may increase,” he told journalists.
Tremors felt in Pakistan
The earthquake intensified existing humanitarian challenges in Afghanistan and urged international donors to support relief efforts, said Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Grandi wrote on the social media platform X, “This adds death and destruction to other challenges including drought and the forced return of millions of Afghans from neighbouring countries”.
“Hopefully the donor community will not hesitate to support relief efforts”, he said.
On Oct 7, 2023 a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck followed by strong aftershocks. The Taliban government estimated at least 4,000 people perished in that quake.
The U.N. gave a far lower death toll of about 1,500. It was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory.
according to the International Rescue Committee.
According to the International Rescue Committee, the latest earthquake was likely to “dwarf the scale of the humanitarian needs” caused by the disaster of 2023.
Said Sherine Ibrahim, the country director for the aid agency, entire roads and communities have been cut off from accessing nearby towns or hospitals and 2,000 casualties were reported within the first 12 hours.
“Although we have been able to act fast, we are profoundly fearful for the additional strain this will have on the overall humanitarian response in Afghanistan,” said Ibrahim. "
