Afghanistan quake: Many children killed in disaster, doctors say
Doctors in Afghanistan have told the BBC that many children may have been killed in Wednesday’s earthquake.
More than 1,000 people died in the disaster and heavy rain, threadbare resources and rugged terrain are hampering rescue workers.
Unknown numbers were buried in the rubble of ruined, often mud-built homes by the magnitude 6.1 earthquake.
The Taliban authorities have called for more international aid. Communication networks are also badly hit.
“We can’t reach the area – networks are too weak,” a Taliban spokesman was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The United Nations is among those scrambling to provide emergency shelter and food aid to remote areas in the worst-hit Paktika province.
Afghanistan’s health system was facing near collapse even before the disaster.
Survivors and rescuers have told the BBC of villages completely destroyed near the epicentre of the quake, of ruined roads and mobile phone towers – and of their fears that the death toll will rise further. Some 1,500 people were also injured, officials say.
Most of the casualties so far have been in the Gayan and Barmal districts of Paktika. Locals report dozens of villages have collapsed.
One woman in hospital in Paktika’s capital told reporters she had lost 19 family members.
“Seven in one room, five in another, four in another, then three in another, have all been killed in my family,” she said from her hospital bed.
“There was a rumbling and my bed began to shake,” another survivor, Shabir, told the BBC.
“The ceiling fell down. I was trapped, but I could see the sky. My shoulder was dislocated, my head was hurt but I got out. I am sure that seven or nine people from my family, who were in the same room as me, are dead.”
One survivor, Zaitullah Ghurziwal, told the BBC that people had lost everything in the quake.
“Nothing is left here. Our belongings are still under the rubble,” Mr Ghurziwal said. “There are no blankets, tents, there’s no shelter. People are lying on open grounds. We need food and water. Our entire water distribution system is destroyed. Everything is devastated, houses are destroyed.”
The head of the UN, António Guterres said the agency had “fully mobilised” over the disaster. Health teams, medical supplies, food and emergency shelters were en route to the quake zone, UN officials said.
But Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, head of information for Paktika province, told AFP it was proving “very difficult” for rescuers to reach areas “affected by floods because of heavy rains last night”.
Rescuers trying to get in from neighbouring regions have also reported weather hindrances.
“It’s June and the weather shouldn’t be like this. We’ve had hail and snow and it’s made things very difficult,” Obaidullah Baheer from NGO Save Afghans from Hunger told the BBC. “Those roads have never been really developed because of the security situation for the past twenty years, so there are a lot of challenges but hopefully we can get in.”
