Kabul—At least six people were killed and nine others injured after an earthquake in eastern Afghanistan overnight, an official said on Monday.
The 5.3-magnitude temblor hit districts along the eastern border with Pakistan. It comes less than three months after a powerful quake killed more than 1,000 people, also along the same frontier.
The provinces of Kunar, Laghman, and Nangarhar, and the capital Kabul felt the latest quake.
Meanwhile, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern China on Monday, according to the US Geological Survey, shaking buildings in the megacity of Chengdu where a COVID-19 lockdown has confined millions of residents to their homes.
The quake hit around 43 kilometers (26 miles) southeast of the city of Kangding in Sichuan province at a depth of 10 kilometers, the USGS said.
There were no immediate reports of any casualties.
Tremors were felt in the nearby provincial capital Chengdu and the megacity of Chongqing, residents told AFP.
“We are collecting information from other areas regarding casualties and damages,” Afghan deputy minister for disaster management Sharafuddin Muslim told AFP.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes—especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
On June 22, the country’s deadliest earthquake in over two decades—of magnitude 5.9—killed more than 1,000 people and injured thousands.
In 2015, about 380 people were killed in Pakistan and Afghanistan when a 7.5-magnitude earthquake ripped across the two countries.
In recent months Afghanistan has also been hit by flash floods that have killed about 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes.
Such disasters pose a huge logistical challenge for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, which has isolated itself from much of the world by introducing hardline Islamist rule.
