Kabul: Just five days after a massive earthquake struck Afghanistan’s Herat province killing more than 2,000 people, another temblor measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit the same region on Wednesday, injuring 80 persons.
According to local residents, as quoted by Xinhua news agency, most of the injured have been taken to hospital from Rubat Sangi district.
“Mobile medical teams and officials have been working together and have transferred several injured people to hospital,” the governor’s office said in a statement, as reported by Reuters.
The epicente of the quake which struck at around 5.10 am on Wednesday morning, is 28km north of the city of Herat.
The fresh quake comes as rescuers are still digging for survivors of the powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake that hit Zindajan, a rural district some 40 km (25 miles) from Herat city, on October 7.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “100 per cent of homes are estimated to have been completely destroyed” , while some villages were totally flattened.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes — especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range as it lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Most of the casualties in that quake were women and children, the World Health Organisation said.
