Sharjah24 – AFP: The death toll from a series of earthquakes in western Afghanistan rose sharply again on Sunday to more than 2,000, with nearly 10,000 injured, as rescue workers dug through razed villages for vanishing signs of life.
More than 1,300 homes were toppled when Saturday's magnitude 6.3 quake, followed by eight strong aftershocks, jolted hard-to-reach areas 30 kilometres (19 miles) northwest of the provincial capital of Herat, according to officials.
In rural Zinda Jan district, dozens of households were reduced to jumbles of broken masonry, where makeshift rescue teams dug trenches in the hope of unearthing survivors.
"Our people witnessed an unprecedented earthquake," said disaster management ministry spokesman Mullah Janan Sayeq, putting the number of dead at 2,053 and injured at 9,240 across 13 villages.
"For the treatment of the victims of the incident we are doing our best," he told reporters in Kabul.
"On-site search operations in the affected area are ongoing," he added, warning the fatality figures would likely rise higher still.
One further aftershock of magnitude 4.2 hit the same area around 7:00 am (0230 GMT) on Sunday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey.
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