Another Powerful Quake Hits Afghan Area Where 2,000 Died This Weekend

The quake occurred at a shallow depth at around 05:10 am local time with its epicentre about 29 kilometres north of the city of Herat.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Wednesday, hitting an area where more than 2,000 people were killed after a series of similar tremors on the weekend. The quake occurred at a shallow depth at around 05:10 am local time (00:40 GMT), with its epicentre about 29 kilometres north of the city of Herat, the United States Geological Survey said.

Volunteers and rescuers have been working since Saturday in what are now last-ditch attempts to find survivors from the earlier series of earthquakes, which levelled entire villages and affected more than 12,000 people, according to UN estimates.

Local and national officials have given conflicting counts of the number of dead and injured from the previous earthquakes, but the disaster ministry has said 2,053 people died.