Rescuers on Tuesday rushed to deliver relief aid to victims of a massive natural disaster that hit northern Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing at least 300 people over a wide swath of mostly mountainous terrain.
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Over 240 people were killed and more than 1,500 injured when the quake hit Pakistan’s northern areas at 2:09PM on Monday.
The Pakistan Red Crescent tweeted that its disaster response team had been dispatched to the affected areas.
With children dead, livestock killed and homes destroyed, a few survivors said they had nothing to look forward to.
In Afghanistan, Sayed Zafar Hashimi, a presidential spokesman, said Tuesday that at least 115 people were killed and 538 were injured across the country.
Mr Earnest said there is a substantial United States Agency for global Development presence in both of these countries to try to assist their needs and there are a number of pre-positioned emergency shelter and relief supply kits in warehouses throughout Afghanistan. Officials said the death toll is likely to go up once the teams reach these isolated locations.
A police official in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar said they had not been able to get in touch with the authorities in Kohistan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to see how its population of almost half a million people had fared. During the daily press briefing, spokesperson St phane Dujarric said so far there are reports of damage across the northeast part of Afghanistan and in Kabul.
The search area for victims of a deadly quake along the Afghan-Pakistani border was widened on Tuesday as authorities increased the death toll to upwards of 260.
According to Zahid Rafiq, an official with the Pakistani meteorological department, the quake was felt across the country.
With a depth of 200km – 124 miles – in the earth, yesterday’s quake marks the latest in a series of serious earthquakes in South Asia this year.
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A video shot by a Kabul university student showed the level of damage left behind by the quake…. walls cracked and the building’s roof had fallen in. “We must ensure them that the government is prepare and ready to provide assistance for people at this critical period of time”, he said.
