MIR GADKHEL – Grieving villagers in eastern Afghanistan dug through mounds of earth that had once been their homes to recover the bodies of dozens of people killed by a 5.5 magnitude earthquake yesterday.
Crowds had gathered for the first funerals by midday, even as some families continued to search by hand through houses that had been reduced to jumbles of mud and broken wooden beams. Dazed parents wept over the bodies of their children, and at the remains of one house an unsteady toddler struggled to lift pieces of rubble.
The US Geological Survey said the quake hit the area just before 2am local time, followed by a 5.1 magnitude aftershock two hours later.
Residents of the village of Mir Gadkhel said they thought dozens had been killed there. A Reuters cameraman counted about 10 dead bodies in a nearby village.
“Three of my family members were killed and seven are injured. I think about 40 people have died. Hundreds of houses have been destroyed,” Gul Mohammad said in Mir Gadkhel, about 45km (28 miles) west of the city of Jalalabad.
Mohammad Tahir Zahir, deputy head of the provincial council of Nangarhar province, said 40 people had died.
Abdul Mateen Edraak, head of Afghanistan’s national disaster and preparedness centre, said 19 were confirmed dead but the toll would rise as more bodies were recovered from the rubble.
President Hamid Karzai’s office said at least 20 had died.
There were so many dead in one village that white sheets were brought out as substitute funeral awnings, which are traditionally black and decorated with verses from the Koran.
Villagers said they had received no help from government officials, who came to survey the damage but then left.
The villages are located between Jalalabad and the capital Kabul, in Nangarhar, a province that experiences sporadic attacks by Taliban insurgents.
There were no immediate reports yesterday of security incidents near the earthquake zone. – (Reuters)