Afghanistan Earthquake Highlights: Earthquake kills at least 1,000, toll expected to rise

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The UK's special representative to Afghanistan, Nigel Casey, said the UK was in touch with the UN and was "ready to contribute to the international response". (Source: BBC)

"The de facto authorities [Taliban] reached out early this morning asking the UN family here in Afghanistan to support them in terms of assessing the needs and responding to those affected," Ms Mort said. (Source: BBC)

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said on Twitter that the agency would “continue supporting people in need across the country.”

In the Sperah district of Khost Province, northeast of Paktika Province, the earthquake killed at least 40 people and wounded 90 others, Shabir Ahmad Osmani, Khost’s provincial director of information and culture, said by telephone.

Rafiullah Rahel, the head of the health department in Paktika Province, said that 381 people were dead and 205 injured in that province. (Source NY Times)

A local farmer in the village of Gyan said there is no official assistance yet and residents of nearby towns and villages have come to rescue victims. He said he found 40 dead bodies.

Local farmer Alem Wafa to BBC: "There are no official aid workers, but people from neighboring cities and villages came here to rescue people. I arrived this morning, and I - myself - found 40 dead bodies." (BBC)

Afghanistan's state-run news agency -BakhtarNews Agency - announced the earthquake in the country's east has killed 1,000 people and injured 1,500 others.

The government will allocate about $11 million in aid, Maulawi Sharafuddin Muslim, acting deputy minister for the country’s disaster management authority, said, with about $1,000 given to families of the deceased and $500 each to the injured.

Muslim said some villages are totally destroyed. He stated that was awaiting information of the damage to the homes.

Muslim told a news conference that “some villages have been completely destroyed”. Muslim said he was relaying information from rescue officials and was “waiting for the details about the damages to houses.” (Washington Post)

A local journalist in Paktika province told BBC that one may hear people lamenting the loss of their loved ones on every street and that everywhere their homes are destroyed.

"Every street you go, you hear people mourning the deaths of their beloved ones. Houses are ruined,"local journalist in badly-hit Paktika province said to the BBC. (Source: BBC)

The U.N.'s office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said Afghanistan had asked humanitarian agencies to help with rescue efforts, and teams were being despatched to the quake-hit area. (Reuters)

Wednesday's quake was the deadliest since 2002. It struck about 44 km (27 miles) from the southeastern city of Khost, near the border with Pakistan, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGC) said. (Reuters)

An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 killed 920 people in Afghanistan, disaster management officials said, with more than 600 injured and the toll is expected to grow as information trickles in from remote mountain villages. (Reuters)

“The international rescue committee said they have deployed local medical team to try and respond to the disaster", Afghan journalist Ali M Latifi, reporting from Kabul said. “The biggest issue is how to reach the sites because they are further away from the provincial capitals, and the road conditions could be difficult. So really the issue is how long it’s going to take them to get there." : Aljazeera