2nd earthquake hits Afghanistan as death toll climbs to over 1,400

2nd earthquake hits Afghanistan as death toll climbs to over 1,400

Habibullah Khan and Morgan Winsor

Amid rescue efforts, a second 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday about 20 miles northeast of Jalalabad, according to the USGS.

"Rescue operations are still underway in all the affected areas today," Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson, said on Tuesday. "Dozens of commandos have been airlifted to areas where planes could not land to pull out the injured from the rubble and transport them to a suitable location."

The death toll from the earthquake, which all but destroyed several villages, rose on Tuesday to at least 1,411 people, a government spokesperson said.

Another 3,124 were injured in the 6.0 magnitude quake, which struck just before midnight on Sunday, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson, said on social media.

Shah Mahmood, a Taliban official in Nangarhar Province, said the quake on Sunday destroyed some 8,000 houses. Emergency responders have yet to reach some villages, where they fear there may be more dead and injured under the rubble, he said.

Sunday's powerful earthquake's epicenter was about 17 miles east of Jalalabad, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Almost all of the deaths were in Kunar Province, officials said in a statement shared Monday by Zabihullah Mujahid, a government spokesperson. Others were killed in Nangarhar Province, said Mufti Abdul Matin Qani, spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior.

Afghanistan earthquake death toll soars over 1,400 as rescuers in Kunar province struggle to reach survivors

Haley Ott, 

Sami Yousafzai, 

Ahmad Mukhtar

The death toll from a major earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan on Sunday night has climbed to at least 1,411, the ruling Taliban's chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday, as rescue operations, hampered by rough terrain, continued across the affected region. At least 3,124 people were injured and 5,412 houses were destroyed, Mujahid said.

"The destruction is overwhelming. Entire villages have been flattened, and people are still trapped under the rubble of collapsed homes. Roads are blocked, making it nearly impossible to move supplies or evacuate the wounded," Dr. Abudl Majeed Ahmadzai, Director of the Kabul Asia Hospital, who travelled to the affected region, told CBS News.

In the hard-hit Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, the earthquake trapped people under rubble when homes, which are largely made of wood and mud in the region, collapsed onto them as they slept.

Ahmadzai said the injured were being carried on foot for hours, sometimes on makeshift stretchers, just to reach basic help.

"The situation is desperate. Food is scarce, medical help is insufficient, and the only effective way to deliver assistance is by helicopter. Without air support, reaching these communities is nearly impossible," Ahamdzai told CBS News.

In locations where helicopters could not land, Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said "dozens of commando forces were air dropped to pull the injured from the rubble and move them to safer ground."

Fitrat said a camp had been established in Kunar's Khas Kunar district, as well as two coordination sites near the disaster zones, to help coordinate emergency aid and assist with the rescue operation, transfer of the injured, and burial of the dead.

The United Nations urged the international community to step forward to help.

"We cannot afford to forget the people of Afghanistan who are facing multiple crises, multiple shocks, and the resilience of the communities has been saturated," the U.N.'s resident coordinator for Afghanistan, Indrika Ratwatte, told The Associate Press. "These are life and death decisions while we race against time to reach people."

A spokesperson for the health ministry in Kabul, Sharafat Zaman, on Monday called for international aid to help handle the devastation caused by the earthquake.