Afghanistan struck by two more strong earthquakes
Two powerful earthquakes struck Herat Province in northwestern Afghanistan early on Sunday, jolting a region already hit by three major quakes over the past eight days that have killed more than 1,000 people, News.Az reports citing the New York Times.
The magnitude-6.3 and magnitude-5.4 temblors struck the province just after 8 a.m. local time at a depth of about 9.6 kilometers, according to the US Geological Survey. The epicenter of the quakes was around 32 kilometers northwest of Herat City, the provincial capital and a major economic hub near the country’s border with Iran.
At least two people died and 125 people were injured in Sunday’s quakes, according to Masoud Danish, the director of the Herat governor’s office.
The episode on Sunday capped an already devastating week in Herat. It began last on Oct. 7, when two major earthquakes hit the region, killing around 1,300 people and injuring about 1,700 more in the country’s deadliest natural disaster in decades, according to the United Nations.
Those quakes decimated entire villages in Zinda Jan district outside the city, turning clusters of mud-brick homes scattered across the desert into little more than piles of rubble.
Days later, another magnitude-6.3 quake hit just outside the city, injuring around 120 people and rattling Herat residents who were already on edge after the initial quakes. Thousands of people left their homes to live in makeshift tents scattered across the city, terrified of another tremor that they feared could bring buildings crashing down around them.
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