Searching For Survivors And The Dead As Afghan Quake Toll Continues To Rise

A man carries the lifeless body of his child, who was killed during an earthquake in the village of Sarbuland in Herat Province's Zindah Jan district on October 8.

Aid workers have reached some quake-stricken areas of western Afghanistan and started distributing emergency food supplies to those affected as rescue efforts continued after a series of powerful temblors killed at least 2,000 people.

Afghan men search for earthquake victims in Zindah Jan.

Wahid Amani, a spokesman for the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) has told RFE/RL that emergency aid has been delivered to several hundred people in Herat Province so far.

"We are prepared to deliver emergency food aid to some 20,000 people" Amani said, adding that the UN food agency was ready to increase that number to 70,000 people.

 A man cries out during search and rescue operations.

Mourners sit beside graves after funeral prayers for their relatives.

In addition to the WFP, teams from the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) have rushed to the areas of Herat worst affected by the quakes. WHO employees are already in the field helping with efforts to rescue and treat people still under the rubble, the organization's Afghan branch told RFE/RL.

Afghans dig graves for earthquake victims.

The WHO has put the number of those affected at more than 11,000 people.

Afghans pray for relatives who were killed in an earthquake at a burial site in Zindah Jan.

The rugged area is difficult to reach, and local officials have given conflicting casualty tolls from the series of quakes in the area. On October 8, a member of the Taliban-led government said the updated death toll had surpassed 2,000.

 An Afghan youth holds his cat as he sits in a courtyard of his destroyed home.

Mullah Janan Sayeeq, a spokesman for the Taliban's Ministry of Disasters, told a news conference that 2,440 people were dead, about 10,000 were injured, and that more than 2,000 houses had been damaged or destroyed. Afghanistan's disaster agency said on October 8 that 2,053 people had been killed.

Neither estimate could be independently confirmed.

Afghan men search for victims.

A man surveys quake damage to a house.

The epicenter of the first earthquake was some 40 kilometers northwest of Herat, which has some 700,000 people in the city and the surrounding area. It was followed by at least three major aftershocks.

Afghan residents clear debris as they continue their search for bodies in the rubble of homes destroyed during the earthquakes.

 

A view of a house damaged in the series of quakes.

Afghan women mourn the death of relatives who were killed in the earthquakes.

Men search for belongings to salvage as the day turns to night.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the largest of the earthquakes at a magnitude of 6.3, with the latest aftershock coming about 30 kilometers northeast of the city of Zindah Jan, which has a population of about 70,000 people.

An Afghan man searches for victims in the dusk.

Disaster authority spokesperson Mohammad Abdullah Jan said four villages in the Zindah Jan district in Herat Province bore the brunt of the quake and aftershocks.