JALALABAD: The death toll from the devastating earthquake that struck Afghanistan on the night of August 31 has surpassed 2,200, with over 3,640 injured across different parts of the country.
The Afghanistan official said that the vast majority of those killed in the magnitude-6.0 earthquake that jolted the mountainous region bordering Pakistan were Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.
According to the Afghan official, another 12 people were killed and hundreds were injured in the neighbouring provinces of Nangarhar and Laghman.
An Afghan official said that the toll had been expected to rise as volunteers and rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble.
Following the devastating earthquake, various countries have flown in aid, but hundreds of villagers in the hard-hit Nurgal district were still stranded in the open air squeezing multiple families under pieces of cover pulled from the rubble.
A fight broke out over food when some finally reached the field in Mazar Dara where hundreds of people were camped out, little aid having reached them.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that local healthcare services were “under immense strain”, with shortages of trauma supplies, medicines and staff.
ALSO READ: Earthquake jolts many parts of KP
WHO has appealed for $4 million to deliver lifesaving health interventions and expand mobile health services.
