At least 120 people are dead and another 1,000 people are injured following a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in the western city of Herat---near the Iranian border---at around 11:00 local time (06:30 GMT).
Four villages in the Zenda Jan district encountered the greatest severity of the earthquake, said Mohammad Abdullah Jan, the disaster authority spokesperson. The earthquake also produced three strong aftershocks in magnitudes of 6.3, 5.9, and 5.5, according to the United States Geological Survey.
At least 465 houses were destroyed and another 135 were damaged during the earthquake according to an earlier report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but the new total could be greater.
"Partners and local authorities anticipate the number of casualties to increase as search and rescue efforts continue amid reports that some people may be trapped under collapsed buildings," the office added.
Victims of the earthquake became trapped underneath the rubble, according to a British news source. One video on social media showed a team of residents pulling a child's lifeless body from the rubble. A deceased man's body appeared to have been shielding her when the earthquake struck. The child was passed to one man, reported to be her father, who held the child's body and cried out.
"We were in our offices and suddenly the building started shaking. Wall plaster started to fall down and the walls got cracks, some walls and parts of the building collapsed." Herat resident and eyewitness Bashir Ahmad told news agency AFP.
"I am not able to contact my family, network connections are disconnected. I am too worried and scared, it was horrifying," he added.
"The situation was very horrible, I have never experienced such a thing," student Idrees Arsala, who was the last to evacuate his classroom during the earthquake, told AFP.
The World Health Organization in Afghanistan reportedly dispatched 12 ambulances to Zenda Jan in hopes of taking victims to hospitals.
“As deaths & casualties from the earthquake continue to be reported, teams are in hospitals assisting treatment of wounded & assessing additional needs,” the U.N. agency said on X (formerly known as Twitter). “WHO-supported ambulances are transporting those affected, most of them women and children.”
The Taliban* asked local organizations via X to assist victims in hard-hit regions with shelter, food, and transportation to hospitals.
“We ask our wealthy compatriots to give any possible cooperation and help to our afflicted brothers,” the Taliban* said on X.
*The Taliban is a terrorist organization under UN sanctions.