RESCUERS have recovered hundreds of bodies from mountainous areas of southeastern Afghanistan, which was hit by a major earthquake at the weekend, taking the death toll to more than 2,200, according to a Taliban government spokesperson.
Previous estimates said some 1,400 people were killed. Taliban spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said on Thursday that the updated death toll was 2,205.
“Tents have been set up for people, and the delivery of first aid and emergency supplies is ongoing,” Fitrat said.
A third earthquake struck the region on Thursday, as search and rescue efforts were continuing. No new deaths have yet been reported after the magnitude 6.2 earthquake.
“We were in a building and everyone was rushing outside and fearing for their lives,” Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem reported from Kunar Province on the effect Thursday’s quake had on people in the area. “People are just afraid of what could happen.”
Sunday’s quake was one of the deadliest in recent times due, in part, to how shallow it was, with its epicentre at a depth of about eight kilometres (five miles).
At least 3,640 people were injured in the magnitude 6 quake on Sunday and a subsequent magnitude 5.5 quake on Tuesday, the Taliban said, with the United Nations warning the death toll could rise as more people are still trapped under rubble, particularly in the worst-hit provinces of Kunar.
“What we’re seeing on the ground is utter devastation, a real catastrophe,” John Aylieff, country director for World Food Programme Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera on Thursday. “We have houses razed to the ground.”
Most of the casualties have been in Kunar province, where people typically live in wood and mud-brick houses along steep river valleys separated by high mountains.
This terrain has deeply impacted rescue efforts, Hashem reported from Afghanistan, adding that his team requested to go to the site of Sunday’s quake and was told it would be a three-hour drive followed by two hours of walking.
“The feeling here is that there are some people behind the mountains dying in silence,” Hashem said.
More than 6,700 homes have been destroyed, authorities have said. Survivors are sifting through debris in their search for loved ones. The rough terrain is hindering relief efforts.
Taliban authorities have deployed helicopters and airdropped army commandos to help survivors. Aid workers have reported walking for hours to reach villages cut off by landslides and rockfall.
Obaidullah Stoman, 26, who travelled to the village of Wadir in Kunar’s Nugral district to search for a friend, told the AFP news agency that there was “only rubble left”.