<\/p>\n
The death toll from an earthquake in western Afghanistan on Saturday has risen to around 120 with 1,000 more injured, disaster relief authorities said, as desperate families dug into the night to free relatives trapped in the rubble.<\/p>\n
The United States Geological Survey said the epicentre of the magnitude 6.3 quake was 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of the region\u2019s largest city Herat, and was followed by eight aftershocks with magnitudes between 4.3 and 6.3.<\/p>\n
As night fell in Sarboland village of Zinda Jan district, in rural Herat province, an AFP<\/em> reporter saw dozens of homes which had been razed to the ground near the epicentre of the earthquakes.<\/p>\n Groups of men with shovels dug through piles of crumbled masonry as women and children waited out in the open, with gutted homes displaying personal belongings flapping in a harsh wind.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a big noise, and it didn\u2019t give any time to react,\u201d said 42-year-old Bashir Ahmad. \u201cIn the very first shake, all the houses collapsed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThose who were inside the houses, they were buried,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are families which we have heard no news from.\u201d Nek Mohammad told AFP<\/em> he was at work when the first quake struck at around 11:00 am (0630 GMT).<\/p>\n \u201cWe came home and saw that actually there was nothing left. Everything had turned to sand,\u201d said the 32-year-old, adding that some 30 bodies had been recovered.<\/p>\n \u201cSo far, we have nothing. No blankets or anything else. We are here left out at night with our martyrs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Herat province disaster management head Mosa Ashari told AFP<\/em> that in addition to \u201cabout 120\u201d killed, \u201cmore than 1,000 injured women, children, and old citizens have been included in our records\u201d.<\/p>\n Crowds of residents fled buildings in Herat city as the series of tremors began, although casualty reports from the metropolitan area were minimal. \u201cWall plasters started to fall down and the walls got cracks, some walls and parts of the building collapsed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not able to contact my family, network connections are disconnected. \u201cThe situation was very horrible, I have never experienced such a thing,\u201d said 21-year-old student Idrees Arsala, the last to safely evacuate his classroom as the quakes began.<\/p>\n Early on Saturday evening, disaster management authority spokesman Mullah Jan Sayeq told AFP<\/em> that the number of fatalities was expected \u201cto rise very high\u201d.<\/p>\n Fatalities running into the hundreds were possible, according to a USGS preliminary estimate.<\/p>\n \u201cSignificant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread. Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The USGS had earlier reported the first quake\u2019s magnitude as 6.2. It had a shallow depth of just 14 kilometres, it said.<\/p>\n Herat \u2014 120 kilometres east of the border with Iran \u2014 is considered the cultural capital of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n It is the capital of Herat province, which is home to an estimated population of 1.9 million, according to 2019 World Bank data.<\/p>\n Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.<\/p>\n In June last year, more than 1,000 people were killed<\/a> and tens of thousands left homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake \u2014 the deadliest in Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century \u2014 struck the impoverished province of Paktika.<\/p>\nPanic in the city<\/h2>\n
\n\u201cWe were in our offices and suddenly the building started shaking,\u201d 45-year-old resident Bashir Ahmad told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nI am too worried and scared, it was horrifying.\u201d Men, women and children stood out in the wide streets, away from tall buildings, in the moments after the first quake and remained wary of returning to their homes as aftershocks rumbled for hours.<\/p>\n\u2018Significant casualties are likely\u2019<\/h2>\n