Richter Scale 6.3 Earthquake Kills At Least 10 People In Afghanistan

JAKARTA - An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit near Mazar-e Sharif City, northern Afghanistan in the early hours of Monday, killing at least 10 people and injuring about 260 people, authorities said, with the death toll likely to rise.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake occurred at a depth of 28 km (17.4 miles) near Mazar-e Sharif, which has a population of about 523,000 people.

The USGS issued an orange warning in its PAGER system, an automated system that produces information about the impact of the earthquake, and indicates "there will likely be significant casualties and potentially widespread disasters".

"A total of 150 people were injured and seven people died have been reported and have been taken to health centers so far this morning," Samim Joyanda, spokesman for the health department in Samangan, a mountainous province in the north near Mazar-e Sharif, told Reuters.

"The death toll is based on hospital reports collected until Monday morning," he said.

Afghanistan's Taliban Defense Ministry said some of Balkh and Samangan provinces were the most affected, resulting in the deaths of a number of residents.

Rescue teams and military emergency aids immediately arrived in the area and began operations to rescue people, transport injured victims, and help affected families, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Sharfat Zaman, said an active rescue team and the death toll and injuries may have increased.

"The health team has arrived in the area, and all nearby hospitals have been alerted," Zaman said in a statement.

The earthquake destroyed parts of the Mazar-i-Sharif holy place, said a spokesman for Balkh Province, Haji Zaid, referring to the Blue Mosque.

Videos of rescue efforts carried out to save people trapped under the rubble and images of collapsed building debris shared on social media platform X.

One video shows rescue teams pulling what looks like bodies from the rubble. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the footage and images.

Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes as it is located in two potentially broken active faults and causes severe damage.

Previously, more than 2,200 people were killed and thousands injured after the strong aftershocks and aftershocks in the southeastern state of Islam that were ravaged by the war in late August.

Previous events with such alert levels require regional or national level responses, the system's warning added.