Aid groups and hospital officials provided a lower number of confirmed fatalities. The Afghan Red Crescent Society cautioned that it remained difficult to verify the full extent of the damage, with a spokesman for the aid group, Irfanullah Sharafzoi, putting the death toll at 400 on Sunday morning. Muhammad Talib Shahid, a health official in the western Afghan city of Herat, said 250 bodies of victims had been brought to hospitals close to the epicenter of the quake.
Over 600 people were hospitalized, Shahid said, pushing medical resources in the city to the brink of collapse. There still appeared to be limited international assistance 24 hours after the quake, with the United Nations saying that several of its ambulances were on their way.
The initial earthquake, which had a 6.3 magnitude, hit the surroundings of Herat on Saturday morning, severely damaging or destroying more than 1,000 homes, according to the government. Local officials later reported powerful aftershocks.
After initial assessments from local officials indicated limited damage Saturday, the death toll surged as rescue efforts continued overnight.
Baz Muhammad Sarwari, a Herat resident, said he was on the second floor of a building in the earthquake zone when it started shaking. “I haven’t experienced such a powerful earthquake in my whole life,” he said.
While footage on social media on Saturday showed chaotic scenes in Herat, one of Afghanistan’s most populous cities, the damage was most severe to the west of the provincial capital. Most of the deaths were reported from villages around 25 miles from the city center, the U.N. and local officials said, where cellphone access continued to be disrupted Sunday.
Afghan officials said the epicenter was in two districts, Zinda Jan and Ghurian, where mud brick houses collapsed within seconds of the initial earthquake, leaving residents with no time to escape.
First responders compared the destruction to the damage caused by the quake that struck eastern Afghanistan last year, killing more than 1,000 people and injuring more than 1,600 — one of the deadliest natural disasters in Afghanistan in decades that raised questions about the internationally isolated Taliban government’s ability to respond to such a major disaster quickly and effectively.
Taliban officials appeared intent Sunday on portraying themselves as in control of the situation. Abdul Ghani Baradar, a senior Taliban leader, said that authorities dispatched helicopters to the earthquake epicenter within half an hour and that emergency services continued rescue operations throughout the night, state-run broadcaster RTA reported.
Farid Ahmad, a resident of Herat, said local authorities blocked lanes in the city on Sunday to allow ambulances to reach hospitals.
But the response appeared to be improvised. Taliban officials appealed to businesses to supply food and rescue equipment, according to residents. Police officers could be seen loading donated shovels and other equipment in their vehicles as they prepared to head to the rural west of the district where the destruction was most severe. Locals joining the search and rescue effort dug for survivors with their bare hands.
Ahmad, who spent the night into Sunday in a park in Herat, said the city’s outdoor areas remained crowded with families well into the afternoon. Few people felt safe enough to return to their homes, he said.
Nawaz Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.
