At least 500 people were killed and thousands injured in a strong earthquake that struck Afghanistan on Monday. Tremors were felt across eastern Afghanistan in the districts of Nur Gul, Soki, Watpur, Manogi, and Chapadare and parts of Pakistan.Country’s state-run broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) reported 500 deaths while Taliban-led health authorities in Kabul said they were still confirming the official toll figure.Sediqullah Quraishi Badloon, a communications official for Nangarhar province, said most of the casualties were reported in Kunar, while nine deaths occurred in Nangarhar. The quake struck about 27 km east-northeast of Jalalabad, a city of nearly 200,000 people, at 11:47 pm local time (1917 GMT), according to the US Geological Survey. It was followed by at least three aftershocks.“The number of casualties and injuries is high, but since the area is difficult to access, our teams are still on site,” health minister Sharafat Zaman said. Kunar’s provincial information head, Najibullah Hanif, added that hundreds of injured were taken to hospitals, with the toll expected to rise as reports come from remote districts.The midnight quake struck at a shallow depth of around 8–10 km, toppling mud and stone homes along the mountainous border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. Rescuers were operating across multiple districts, searching the rubble for survivors. Authorities confirmed that several children died when their home’s roof collapsed.Buildings shook for several seconds in Jalalabad and other towns, while tremors were also felt in Islamabad, nearly 370 km away, AFP reported.Earthquakes are a recurring disaster in Afghanistan, where much of the population lives in fragile housing near geological faults. The country’s position at the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, particularly in the Hindu Kush region, makes it highly vulnerable to seismic activity. Each major quake further strains reconstruction efforts in a nation already battered by decades of conflict.
