At least 800 people have been killed and over 2,800 injured after a devastating earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan late on Sunday night, according to the country’s health ministry. The toll is expected to rise as rescuers continue to search through the rubble.
Taliban soldiers and civilians carry earthquake victims to an ambulance at an airport in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, September 1, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
The tremor hit at 11:47 p.m. local time, with its epicenter located 42 kilometers from Jalalabad at a shallow depth of just eight kilometers — a factor that intensified the destruction. Entire villages in Kunar province were reduced to rubble, with three completely flattened and many others heavily damaged.
Prayers for Afghanistan after a major earthquake hits Kunar. pic.twitter.com/cbdteIJBHZ
— Mansoor Ahmed Qureshi (@MansurQr) September 1, 2025
People carry an earthquake victim on a stretcher to an ambulance at an airport in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, September 1, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
“The poor condition of housing in the region is a critical factor in the high number of casualties,” officials said as reported in Reuters, noting that most homes collapsed during the quake.
Afghanistan sits on the geologically volatile Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. Deadly quakes are common, and a series of tremors in western Afghanistan last year killed more than 1,000 people, highlighting the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest nations.
Speaking to Greek broadcaster ERTnews, geology professor and president of Greece’s Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, Efthymios Lekkas, warned that the final death toll could climb much higher. “It was a large earthquake of around magnitude six, at a very shallow depth, in an area with scattered but vulnerable housing,” he explained.
Rescue operations remain underway as emergency teams work to reach remote villages, hoping to find survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings.
