Kabul, September 01, 2025 – The Europe Today: A powerful earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan late Sunday, leaving widespread destruction in its wake and claiming at least 622 lives, according to media reports citing foreign sources. Nearly 1,500 others were injured in the disaster.
The quake, measuring 6.0 magnitude, struck at 11:47 p.m. local time and was centred 27 kilometres east-northeast of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported. With a depth of only 8 kilometres, the shallow tremor caused severe devastation across several towns in neighbouring Kunar province.
The Kunar Disaster Management Authority confirmed that at least 250 people were killed and 500 others injured in the districts of Nur Gul, Soki, Watpur, Manogi, and Chapadare. Entire villages were reported to have been destroyed.
“Rescue operations are still underway, and several villages have been completely destroyed. The figures for martyrs and injured are changing. Medical teams from Kunar, Nangarhar, and the capital Kabul have arrived in the area,” said Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health.
Authorities warned that the casualty figures are expected to rise as information continues to arrive from remote areas cut off by the disaster.
Jalalabad, a bustling trade hub near the Pakistan border with a population of around 300,000, also sustained significant damage. Many of its surrounding rural communities consist of mud-brick and wood houses, highly vulnerable to seismic activity.
The earthquake comes as Afghanistan struggles with multiple humanitarian crises, including reduced foreign aid and the repatriation of Afghan nationals from neighbouring countries.
The country is particularly prone to deadly earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush region where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide. In October 2023, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 4,000 people in western Afghanistan, underscoring the nation’s extreme vulnerability to seismic disasters.
