Number of casualties in Afghanistan earthquake tops 4,000

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) - The number of people dead and injured in last week's earthquake that jolted northwest Afghanistan has exceeded 4,000, a disaster management official said on Sunday.

In a press conference in Kabul, Mullah Janan Saiq, a spokesman for the Disaster Management Ministry, said that some 2,000 houses in 20 villages of the Zinda Jan and Ghorian districts were destroyed in the earthquake.

Saiq said that the ministry is struggling to gather the "exact" figures of dead and injured as rescuers scrambled to pull out people trapped under the rubble.

He called upon the international community to help Kabul in responding to the damage caused by the earthquake.

On Saturday, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake jolted the two districts of northwestern Herat province near the border with Iran.