Afghanistan quake death toll rises as survivors face aid crunch

Rescue workers battled to pull bodies from the rubble of homes razed in Afghanistan's earthquakes this week, as time runs out for survivors, who face a bleak future with global aid agencies warning of dwindling funds for food, shelter, and medicines.

Search operations ran late into Wednesday in the quake-hit mountainous eastern areas as more bodies were dug out, the Taliban administration said, adding that the death toll had crossed 1,457 but exact numbers had yet to be compiled.

"Everything we had has been destroyed," said Aalem Jan, a survivor in the worst-affected province of Kunar.

"Our house collapsed, and all our belongings and possessions were lost. The only remaining things are these clothes on our backs."

The first earthquake of magnitude 6, one of Afghanistan's deadliest in recent years, unleashed widespread damage and destruction in the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar on Sunday, when it struck at a shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles).

A second quake of magnitude 5.5 on Tuesday caused panic and interrupted rescue efforts as it sent rocks sliding down mountains and cut off roads to villages in remote areas.

About 3,400 more have been injured, and more than 6,700 homes have been destroyed, authorities have said. The United Nations has warned the toll could rise with people still trapped under rubble as time runs out for survivors.

Humanitarian needs are "vast and growing rapidly," said aid group the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

"Up to 84,000 people are directly and indirectly affected, with thousands displaced," it added, citing initial figures.

Entire households were wiped out in some villages in Kunar province. Survivors desperately searching for family members sifted rubble, carried bodies on woven stretchers and dug graves with pickaxes in the wait for aid to arrive.

Reuters