Wounded Afghans are treated at a hospital after an earthquake in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on Sept. 1, 2025. (Credit: Aimal Zahir/AFP)
A massive rescue operation was underway in Afghanistan on Monday after a strong earthquake and multiple aftershocks flattened homes, killing more than 800 people and injuring 2,700 others, the interior ministry said.
The earthquake struck just before midnight, shaking buildings from Kabul to Islamabad, in Pakistan.
The Taliban authorities and the United Nations mobilised rescue efforts to hard-hit areas.
"The U.N. in Afghanistan is deeply saddened by the devastating earthquake that struck the eastern region & claimed hundreds of lives," the U.N. said on X, saying teams were on the ground "delivering emergency assistance & lifesaving support."
The epicenter of the quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of eight kilometers, was 27 kilometers from the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Shallow quakes tend to cause more damage than deep tremors.
Frequent quakes
A series of aftershocks followed throughout the night, including a powerful and shallow 5.2-magnitude quake just after 4:00 a.m. (11:30 p.m. GMT Sunday).
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Nangarhar province was also hit by flooding overnight Friday to Saturday, which killed five people and destroyed crops and property, provincial authorities said.
In June 2022, a 5.9-magnitude quake struck the impoverished eastern border province of Paktika, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
Ravaged by four decades of war, Afghanistan is already contending with a humanitarian disaster.
With the return of the Taliban, foreign aid to Afghanistan has shrunk dramatically, undermining the already impoverished nation's ability to respond to disasters.
In 2015, more than 380 people were killed in Pakistan and Afghanistan when a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake ripped across the two countries, with the bulk of the deaths in Pakistan.
In that disaster, 12 young Afghan girls were crushed to death in a stampede as they tried to flee their shaking school building.
