The Hindu : 1,800 killed in Afghan quake

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 27, 2002

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1,800 killed in Afghan quake

KABUL, MARCH 26. More than 1,800 people are feared dead after a devastating earthquake wiped out a remote rural town in northern Afghanistan overnight, Afghan officials said today.

Yussuf Nooristani, spokesman for the interim Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, said more than 1,800 people were believed to have died and 2,000 injured in and around Nahrin, in Baghlan province. ``If you go there you would only see rubble, destroyed houses, displaced people. It would be a chaos.''

The Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman, Mira Jan, earlier said 600 bodies had been recovered from Nahrin, a town 175 km north of Kabul which was flattened in the quake.

The quake measured 6.0 on the Richter scale and was centred in the Hindu Kush mountains 120 km north of the Afghan capital, according to seismological officials in neighbouring Pakistan. It struck around 7.30 pm (2030 hrs IST Monday) and severe aftershocks measuring between 4.0 and 5.2 on the Richter scale were continuing today morning, they said.

Sebastien Prives, head of the French non-governmental organisation ACTED, the only aid group known to have an office in Nahrin, said that at least 1,200 people had died and 1,500 had been injured. ``All the town has been destroyed,'' he said.

Rescue efforts begin

As reports continued to pour in from the isolated mountainous region, the United Nations, foreign aid agencies and the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul were beginning a massive rescue and recovery effort. But U.N. officials in Geneva said two out of the three roads to the area were blocked.

Mr. Jan said about 4,000 houses had been destroyed and 10,000 people rendered homeless. Most shops and houses in Nahrin were destroyed and most people had fled for the hills. ``There are still shocks going on every two hours or so. So far, we have not managed to get any help or relief to the area,'' he said. ``We urgently need tents, medical teams and medicine, food and clothes for the victims. The Government doesn't have anything available to give to them — you know that," he said.

The U.N. spokeswoman, Rebecca Richards, said ACTED had dispatched 500 tents and 1,000 blankets and the U.N. was sending other aid. ``People are quite scared of going back to their houses,'' she added.

Meanwhile, Mr. Karzai has cancelled a trip to Turkey following the deadly earthquake, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

India regrets loss of lives

India today regretted the loss of lives in the devastating earthquake in northern Afghanistan. ``We are deeply saddened and sincerely regret the loss of lives,'' an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson told reporters in New Delhi. — AFP, Reuters, PTI, UNI

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