6.3 SR-magnitude Earthquake Shakes Afghanistan Again

JAKARTA - A 6.3-scale Richter earthquake rocked Herat province in western Afghanistan on Wednesday, forcing authorities to deploy a search and rescue team that had been on the ground for days, after a deadly earthquake on Saturday.

"There are no initial details regarding the fatalities caused by the latest earthquake," disaster management spokesman Janan Sayeeq told Reuters.

Governor Herat's office said in a statement that several districts bordering areas that had been razed to the ground as a result of previous earthquakes had suffered "very heavy losses".

"The medical team and medics have been working together and have transferred several injured people to the hospital," the governor's office said.

Separately, the German Center for Geoscience Research (GFZ) said that the last earthquake had a magnitude of 6.3 SR and occurred at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles).

Previously, more than 2,000 people were injured when the earthquake leveled thousands of homes northwest of the city of Herat a few days earlier.

It is known that the earthquake on Saturday that rocked Afghanistan killed at least 2,400 people, the Taliban-controlled government said, making the earthquake one of the deadliest in the world so far this year.

The earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale occurred 35 km (20 miles) northwest of the city of Herat, according to the United States (USGS) Geological Survey.

Relief and rescue efforts after Saturday's earthquake were hampered by infrastructure destroyed by decades of war, as well as a lack of foreign aid that has been the backbone of the economy, but has dried up since the Taliban took over.

Afghanistan's healthcare system, which relies mostly on foreign aid, is also facing crippling cuts.

Surrounded by mountains, Afghanistan has a history of strong earthquakes, many in the Hindu Kush region bordering Pakistan.