Afghanistan earthquake: More than 1,000 people killed after ...

(CNN) Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more, according to a regional official.

The humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.

The shocks hit at 1:24 a.m. local time on Wednesday (4:54 p.m. ET on Tuesday) around 46 kilometers (28.5 miles) southwest of the city of Khost, which lies close to the country's border with Pakistan, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

People sit outside a tent after their house was damaged in the earthquake on June 22.

People sit outside a tent after their house was damaged in the earthquake on June 22.

A girl stands near a house that was damaged by the earthquake on June 22.

A girl stands near a house that was damaged by the earthquake on June 22.

People queue up in a line to donate blood for the earthquake victims being treated at a hospital in Paktika, Afghanistan, on June 22.

People queue up in a line to donate blood for the earthquake victims being treated at a hospital in Paktika, Afghanistan, on June 22.

An old man sits near his house that was destroyed in the earthquake on June 22.

An old man sits near his house that was destroyed in the earthquake on June 22.

Taliban guards outside the district hospital where victims of the earthquake were brought in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.

Taliban guards outside the district hospital where victims of the earthquake were brought in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.

An injured victim of the earthquake receives treatment at a hospital in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.

An injured victim of the earthquake receives treatment at a hospital in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.

A villager collects his belongings from under the rubble of his home that was destroyed in the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.

A villager collects his belongings from under the rubble of his home that was destroyed in the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.

People help in search and rescue operations amid the debris of a building after the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.

People help in search and rescue operations amid the debris of a building after the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.

Children sit near their home that has been destroyed in an earthquake in the Spera District of southwest of the city of Khost, Afghanistan, on June 22.

Children sit near their home that has been destroyed in an earthquake in the Spera District of southwest of the city of Khost, Afghanistan, on June 22.

A Taliban military helicopter flies over an earthquake-damaged area in the Paktika province, on June 23.

A Taliban military helicopter flies over an earthquake-damaged area in the Paktika province, on June 23.

A man stands near debris of a building after the quake shakes border provinces of Paktika, Afghanistan on June 23.

A man stands near debris of a building after the quake shakes border provinces of Paktika, Afghanistan on June 23.

Members of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.

Members of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.

An Afghan man stands besides a door of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.

An Afghan man stands besides a door of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.

Afghan men search for survivors amidst the debris of a house that was destroyed by an earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.

Afghan men search for survivors amidst the debris of a house that was destroyed by an earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.

Afghan people set up tents as a temporary shelters amid the ruins of houses damaged in the earthquake in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.

Afghan people set up tents as a temporary shelters amid the ruins of houses damaged in the earthquake in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.

A child stands besides a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.

A child stands besides a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.

A man carries supplies in an area affected by the earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.

A man carries supplies in an area affected by the earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.

An Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.

An Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.

Men stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.

Men stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.

A man sits on the debris of a building after an earthquake in Paktika , Afghanistan on June 22. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people.

The quake registered at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to USGS, which designated it at yellow alert level -- indicating a relatively localized impact.

Most of the deaths were in Paktika province, in the districts of Giyan, Nika, Barmal and Zirok, according to the State Ministry for Disaster Management.

The death toll stands at more than 1,000 and at least 1,500 people have been injured "in Gayan and Barmal districts of Paktika province alone," Mohammad Amin Hozaifa, head of Paktika province's information and culture department, told CNN in a phone call Wednesday.

The official expects the number of casualties to rise as search and effort missions continue.

In this photo released by state-run news agency Bakhtar, Afghans evacuate the wounded following the quake in Paktika province, eastern Afghanistan.

In neighboring Khost province, 25 people were killed and several others were injured, and five people were killed in Nangarhar province, the disaster management authority said.

Photos from Paktika province, just south of Khost province, show houses turned to rubble with only a wall or two still standing amid the rubble, and broken roof beams.

Najibullah Sadid, an Afghan water resources management expert, said the earthquake had coincided with heavy monsoon rain in the region -- making traditional houses, many made of mud and other natural materials, particularly vulnerable to damage.

"The timing of the earthquake (in the) dark of night ... and the shallow depth of 10 kilometers of its epicenter led to higher casualties," he added.

A team of medics and seven helicopters have been sent to the area to transport injured people to nearby hospitals, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said in a tweet on Wednesday.

This comes as almost half the country's population -- 20 million people -- are experiencing acute hunger, according to a United Nations-backed report in May. It is a situation compounded by the Taliban seizing power in August 2021, which led the United States and its allies freezing about $7 billion of the country's foreign reserves and cutting off international funding.

The situation has crippled an economy already heavily dependent on aid. Following the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, its economy has gone into freefall with the World Bank forecasting in April that a "combination of declining incomes and increasing prices has driven a severe deterioration in household living standards."

Many of the areas' traditional houses are made of mud and other natural materials, making them vulnerable to damage.

The earthquake hit at 1.24 a.m. about 46 kilometers southwest of the city of Khost.

The Taliban held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to organize providing transportation to the injured and material aid to the victims and their families, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said.

Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund called the meeting at the country's Presidential Palace to instruct all relevant agencies to send emergency relief teams to the affected area, Mujahid said in a tweet.

"Measures were also taken to provide cash assistance and treatment," Mujahid said and added that agencies were "instructed to use air and land transport for the delivery of food, clothing, medicine and other necessities and for the transportation of the wounded."

Afghanistan's Deputy Minister of State for Disaster Management, Mawlawi Sharafuddin Muslim, said Wednesday that "the Islamic Emirate will pay 100,000 AFN ($1,116.19) for the families of those who were killed in the earthquake and 50,000 ($558.10) will be paid to families of those injured."

The government also highlighted the need for foreign aid.

"Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls for the generous support of all countries international organizations individuals and foundations to provide and deliver urgent humanitarian aid," a press statement from the country's diplomatic missions read.

In a tweet on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said its teams were on the ground for emergency response, including providing medicine, trauma services and conducting needs assessments.

But a WHO official told CNN's Eleni Giokos that logistics were stretched. "All of the resources have been mobilized, not just from the nearby provinces but also from Kabul including medical supplies, medics, nurses, health workers, ambulances and emergency officers who are trained in dealing with such situations," said Alaa AbouZeid, emergencies team lead and incident manager at WHO's Afghanistan office.

"The situation is still evolving, and we are pushing more resources as the situation needs," he said. "The resources are overstretched here, not just for this region, but we are expecting the situation to evolve in the coming hours."

According to to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), heavy rain and wind is "hampering efforts with helicopters reportedly unable to land this afternoon."

"Immediate needs identified include emergency trauma care, emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance and WASH [water, sanitation and hygiene] support," said the UNOCHA in a statement published Wednesday.

Afghan Red Crescent Society volunteers help people affected by the eartquake in Giyan district.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended his condolences and an offer of support in a tweet on Wednesday. "Deeply grieved to learn about the earthquake in Afghanistan, resulting in the loss of innocent lives," he wrote. "People in Pakistan share the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren. Relevant authorities are working to support Afghanistan in this time of need."

India expressed "sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families," according to a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday.

Pope Francis said he was praying "for those who have lost their lives and for their families," during his weekly audience on Wednesday. "I hope aid can be sent there to help all the suffering of the dear people of Afghanistan."

Afghanistan has a long history of earthquakes, many of which happen in the mountainous Hindu Kush region that borders with Pakistan.

In 2015, a quake that shook parts of South Asia killed more than 300 people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

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Afghanistan earthquake: Crisis-hit country struggles for aid following ...

(CNN) Desperate search and rescue operations were underway in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday following an earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people, a heavy blow for a country already facing a dire economic and humanitarian crisis.

The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border. At least 1,500 people have been reported injured -- but officials warn the toll is likely to rise as many families were sleeping in flimsy housing structures when the quake hit.

Children near their destroyed home in the Spera district of Afghanistan's Khost province on June 22.

Many homes in the area are made of mud, wood and other materials vulnerable to weather damage -- and the quake coincided with heavy monsoon rains, adding to the danger of collapse.

Photos from nearby Paktika province, a rural and mountainous region where most of the deaths have been reported, show houses reduced to rubble. About 2,000 homes are thought to have been destroyed, according to the United Nations. Some people spent the night sleeping in makeshift outdoor shelters, as rescuers scoured for survivors by flashlight.

Afghan villagers sit outside a tent after their house was damaged in an earthquake in Spera, Khost province, on June 22.

Medics and emergency staff from around the country are converging on the site, with assistance from some international agencies such as the World Health Organization.

Read More

Afghanistan earthquake: 'What do we do when another disaster hits ...

(CNN) Aid groups scrambled on Thursday to reach victims of a powerful earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people in an area blighted by poor infrastructure, as the country faces dire economic and hunger crises.

The slow response, exacerbated by international sanctions and decades of mismanagement, concerns people working in the humanitarian space, like Obaidullah Baheer, lecturer in Transitional Justice at the American University of Afghanistan. "This is a very patchwork, band-aid solution for a problem that we need to start thinking (about) mid to long term... what do we do when (another disaster) hits?" he told CNN by phone.

The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border and the death toll is expected to rise as many of the homes in the area were flimsily made out of wood, mud and other materials vulnerable to damage.

Humanitarian agencies are converging on the area, but its remote location has complicated rescue efforts.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has successfully dispatched humanitarian aid and assistance to families in Paktika and Khost provinces to cover the needs of about 4,000 people, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General António Guterres said during a Thursday press briefing.

Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the "priority needs include emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance, health and water and sanitation, as well as hygiene support."

He added that the World Food Program (WFP) has confirmed stocks of food will be able to serve at least 14,000 in the hardest-hit Paktika province.

"At least 18 trucks are making their way to the earthquake-affected areas carrying emergency supplies, including high-energy biscuits and mobile storage units," a WFP statement released Thursday said.

UNICEF Afghanistan tweeted that they were able to distribute "hygiene kits, winter kits, emergency family kitchen kits, tents, blankets, warm clothes and tarpaulin" to affected individuals in Paktika and Khost.

Men stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.

The quake coincided with heavy monsoon rain and wind between June 20 and 22, which has hampered search efforts and helicopter travel.

As medics and emergency staff from around the country attempt to access the site, help is expected to be limited as a number of organizations pulled out of the aid-dependent country when the Taliban took power in August last year.

Those that remain are stretched thin. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had mobilized "all of the resources" from around the country, with teams on the ground providing medicine and emergency support. But, as one WHO official put it, "the resources are overstretched here, not just for this region."

'Very bleak'

The international community's hesitancy to deal with the Taliban and the group's "very messy bureaucracy where it becomes difficult to gain information from one source" has led to a communication gap in the rescue efforts, Baheer -- who is also the founder of aid group Save Afghans from Hunger -- said.

"At the core of everything is how the politics has translated into this gap of communication, not just between countries and the Taliban, but international aid organizations and the Taliban as well," he added.

Baheer gives an example of how he has been acting as a conduit of information with the WFP and other aid organizations, informing them that Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense were offering to airlift aid from humanitarian organizations to badly hit areas.

In the meantime, some people spent the night sleeping in makeshift outdoor shelters, as rescuers scoured for survivors by flashlight. The United Nations says 2,000 homes are thought to have been destroyed. Pictures from the badly hit Paktika province, where most of the deaths have been reported, show homes reduced to dust and rubble.

Hsiao-Wei Lee, WFP deputy country director in Afghanistan, described the situation on the ground as "very bleak," where some the villages in heavily affected districts "are completely decimated or 70% are collapsed," she said.

Members of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake.

"There will be months and potentially years of building back," she said. "The needs are so much more massive than just food... It could be shelter for example, to be able to facilitate the movement of that food as well as the customs clearance, logistics would be helpful."

Officials say aid is reaching the affected areas.

The government has so far distributed food, tents, clothing, and other supplies to the quake-hit provinces, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense's official Twitter account. Medical and relief teams deployed by the Afghan government are already present in the quake-hit areas, and attempting to transport the wounded to medical facilities and health centers by land and air, it added.

'Carpet sanctioning a whole country and a whole people'

Although the economic crisis in Afghanistan has loomed for years, the result of conflict and drought, it plunged to new depths after the Taliban takeover, which prompted the United States and its allies to freeze about $7 billion of the country's foreign reserves and cut off international funding.

The US no longer has a presence in Afghanistan following the hasty withdrawal of its troops and collapse of the previous US-backed Afghan government. Like nearly all other nations, it does not have official relations with the Taliban government.

Sanctions have crippled the Afghan economy and sent many of its 20 million people into a severe hunger crisis. Millions of Afghans are out of work, government employees haven't been paid, and the price of food has soared.

Humanitarian aid is excluded from sanctions, but there are impediments, according to draft remarks by Martin Griffiths, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ahead of a UN Security Council in the situation in Afghanistan.

This includes a major need in funding, Taliban authorities "seeking to play a role in the selection of beneficiaries and channeling assistance to people on their own priority lists," and the "formal banking system continues to block transfers," he writes.

This means "around 80% of organizations (who responded to OCHA's monitoring survey) are facing delays in transferring funds, with two thirds reporting that their international banks continue to deny transfers. Over 60% of organizations cite lack of available cash in-country as a programmatic impediment."

A child stands beside a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.

Baheer says sanctions "are hurting us so much" that Afghans are struggling to send money to families affected by the earthquake.

"The fact that we barely have a banking system, the fact that we haven't had new currency printed or brought into the country in the past nine to 10 months, our assets are frozen... these sanctions don't work," he said.

He added: "The only sanctions that make moral sense is targeted sanctions on specific individuals rather than carpet sanctioning a whole country and a whole people."

While "sanctions have affected a lot of the country, there's an exemption for humanitarian aid so we're getting it in to support those most in need," Mort, from UNICEF, told CNN.

The Taliban "isn't preventing us from distributing anything like that, on the contrary they are enabling us," she added.

Experts and officials say the most pressing immediate needs include medical care and transportation for the injured, shelter and supplies for the displaced, food and water, and clothing.

An Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake.

The UN has distributed medical supplies and sent mobile health teams to Afghanistan -- but warned that it does not have search and rescue capabilities.

Baheer told CNN on Wednesday that the Taliban were only able to send out six rescue helicopters "because when the United States was leaving it disabled most of the aircraft whether it belonged to Afghanistan forces or to them."

Pakistan has offered to help, opening border crossings in its northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkwa and allowing injured Afghans to come into the country visa-free for treatment, according Mohammad Ali Saif, a regional government spokesperson.

"400 injured Afghans have moved into Pakistan this morning for treatment and a stream of people is continuing, these numbers are expected to rise by the end of day, Saif told CNN.

Pakistan has kept a tight limit on Afghans entering the country via the land border crossing since the Taliban took power.

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Japan earthquake: 4 dead after 7.4-magnitude quake hits coast off ...

Tokyo (CNN) A 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Japan late Wednesday night, killing at least four people and injuring over 100 others, and cutting power to millions of homes.

One of the people who died was a man in his 60s who lived in the city of Soma, the local disaster prevention office said on Thursday.

The quake hit off the coast of Japan's eastern Fukushima prefecture, a region devastated by a powerful quake and tsunami 11 years ago that resulted in a nuclear power plant meltdown.

The quake was originally designated 7.3-magnitude, but was upgraded to 7.4 on Thursday.

A tsunami advisory was issued after Wednesday's quake for the coastal prefectures of Fukushima and Miyagi, but was lifted on Thursday morning and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later said "no abnormalities" had been detected at any of the country's nuclear plants.

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Naila Inayat, Siddhant Mohan and John Bacon

USA TODAY

LAHORE, Pakistan — At least 311 people were killed when a magnitude-7.5 earthquake centered in Afghanistan rocked neighboring Pakistan and rattled buildings as far away as India.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was in the far northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, which borders Pakistan, Tajikistan and China.

The death toll reached at least 311 early Tuesday. In Pakistan, 228 people were killed, with more than 1,000 injured, while Afghanistan reported 33 dead and more than 200 injured, according to the Associated Press. The Afghan death toll included 12 school girls who died in a stampede fleeing their swaying school in Takhar Province. The Indian-controlled Kashmir region reported two deaths.

Authorities warned the number of deaths could climb as damage in remote villages is discovered.

"The devastation is going to be huge,” said Fazl Din, a doctor in Peshawar, about 25 miles from the Afghan frontier. “It is very difficult to reach the far-flung villages. The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan have no proper disaster management units.”

After quake, fears remain of more destruction if ground shakes again

Pakistan’s Information Minister Pervez Rashid said civil and military authorities were working to reach all those affected by the quake. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered assistance to Pakistan, although Rashid said his country of more than 180 million people doesn't plan to to seek help from other nations, the AP reported.

“We have enough resources to handle the situation," Rashid said.

The quake caused widespread power outages and cut phone lines in Kabul, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.

The world's deadliest earthquakes in past decade

In Afghanistan’s Baghlan’s province north of the capital of Kabul, construction worker Mir Omarkhil, 32, said his 11-year-old son lost a leg to the quake.

“He was playing outside when the earth shook," Omarkhil said. "He got himself under a building for protection. That cost him his left leg.”

Rashid Khan Haider, 54, a folk singer from Parwan near Kabul, said he fled his home moments before it collapsed. When the quake began, he thought a terrorist attack was underway, he said.

“Within few moments I got the idea that it is something else," he said. "Thanks to Allah that we are safe, but our house was ruined like a house of cards.”

In Pakistan, buildings collapsed in Peshawar, and the quake was felt hundreds of miles away.

In Mingora, Pakistan, 50 miles from the Afghanistan border, schoolteacher Salma Khan said she was helping her pupils wrap up for the day when the ground shifted beneath her.

"Our first reaction was that maybe it is a terrorist attack,” Khan said. “We rushed to move the children out of the vicinity when we found out it was an earthquake."

"I was in my apartment on the third floor ... and I literally felt death," Faisal Farooq, 28, who lives in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, told Dawn. "The building was moving like a swing. My legs are still shivering."

In north central Pakistan, a wall of the Government Ambala Muslim High School Sargodha collapsed in the quake, injuring 10 people.

"Most of the government school buildings are in bad shape, and this one in particular was in ruins. It was a miracle that saved the entire building from falling," said Tahir Malik, a college student based in Sargodha.

People in the Afghan capital of Kabul, India's capital New Delhi and Pakistan's capital Islamabad reported feeling strong tremors. In Islamabad, walls swayed and people poured out of office buildings in a panic, reciting verses from the Quran, the AP said.

New Delhi's metro stopped running during the tremor. Avinash Mishra, 28, a law student at Dehli University, was riding the subway from the city into the suburbs on Monday when the earthquake struck.

“Suddenly the train stopped,” Mishra said. “We could feel tremors inside the train. We were there for about 15 minutes until the train moved again.”

In October 2005. a magnitude-7.6 earthquake in the Kashmir region rocked parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, killing more than 80,000 people.

Mohan reported from New Delhi; Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing; Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY

Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images A man sits on the debris of a building after an earthquake in Paktika , Afghanistan on June 22. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people. In photos: Deadly earthquake hits Afghanistan

Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images A man sits on the debris of a building after an earthquake in Paktika , Afghanistan on June 22. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people.

Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more, according to a regional official.

The humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.

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Gas tax holiday plan, Roe v. Wade, Southwest Airlines pilots protest ...

President Joe Biden proposed a tax holiday on fuel, but not everybody in Congress is ready to hit the gas. An earthquake rocked Afghanistan, leaving 1,000 dead and scores more injured. And we're looking at the maze of state abortion laws that would be triggered should Roe v. Wade be overturned.

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Congress not quite ready to green-light Biden's gas tax holiday

As gas prices soar above $5 a gallon in many states, President Biden on Wednesday called on Congress to temporarily halt the federal tax on gas and asked states, which have their own taxes, to take similar action. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats were skeptical and remained noncommittal, signaling Biden's proposal could be doomed out of the gate. The pause, which Biden envisions lasting through September, would require congressional approval. The White House billed the holiday as a way to provide some "breathing room" as it works to bring costs down over the long term. Read more about Biden's plan.

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At least 1,000 killed in Afghanistan earthquake

An earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 1,000 people, injuring 1,500 more and destroying homes and other buildings in the rugged, mountainous region. Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada told the state-run Bakhtar News Agency the death toll from the magnitude 5.9 temblor was likely to rise. Hundreds of homes and other buildings were destroyed, he said. The quake struck at 1:24 a.m. local time, when many were sleeping, and was felt more than 300 miles by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. "People are digging grave after grave," said Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, head of the Information and Culture Department in Paktika. Read more + see a map of the earthquake.

📸 Gallery: Evacuations, destruction seen after Afghanistan earthquake.

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A break from the news

Taliban backs relief efforts after deadly Pakistan quake

Naila Inayat, Siddhant Mohan and John Bacon

USA TODAY

LAHORE, Pakistan — The Taliban on Tuesday urged its fighters to aid earthquake victims and said it would not block governmental relief efforts in the battered region of northern Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The communique was issued as workers scrambled to deliver emergency supplies to the isolated, mountainous area that was rocked by a magnitude-7.5 quake Monday. The death toll rose to more than 370 on Tuesday, but authorities warned it could continue to climb as rescuers reach remote villages where communication lines were cut off by the quake.

The Taliban has waged a series of bloody battles in recent months with troops supporting the Western-backed government in Kabul. As a result, earthquake relief efforts had been hamstrung by security concerns. The Taliban — or Islamic Emirate — indicated Tuesday it would not hinder emergency teams, Reuters reported.

"The Islamic Emirate calls on our good-willed countrymen and charitable organizations to not hold back in providing shelter, food and medical supplies to the victims," the group said in a statement. "And it similarly orders its mujahedin in the affected areas to lend their complete help."

The epicenter of the quake was on the Afghan side of the border, but Pakistan took the brunt of the destruction and deaths. Afghan and Pakistani officials listed the preliminary death toll at 258 people in Pakistan and 115 in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. More than 200 died in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone.

Thousands of people were injured and thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed. The result: Thousands left homeless ahead of a harsh winter common for the Hindu Kush mountain region that stretches from northern Pakistan deep into central Afghanistan.

Pakistan declined offers of relief assistance from the U.S., neighboring India and other nations.

“We have enough resources to handle the situation,” Pakistan Information Minister Pervez Rashid said at a press conference Tuesday in Islamabad. “The government is utilizing all resources to save human lives and restore communication links."

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited the town hit the hardest by the earthquake, Shangla in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along the Afghan frontier, where he said at least 49 people were killed and 80 were injured.

When the earthquake struck, Arshad Khan, a teacher in Buner, fled her house with her 14-year-old son, who suffered a fractured leg and his head required stitches. Khan said she saw a neighbor die under a collapsing house.

“Pakhtunkhwa is in ruins literally — cut off from the road network,” said Khan, who was at Lady Reading Hospital in the provincial capital of Peshawar. “We are waiting to hear about our missing family and friends. We are losing hope.”

Mushta Aziz, a shopkeeper and father of two from Gilgit, a Pakistani city about 100 miles from the border with Tajikistan, said his family was forced to sleep outdoors in the cold amid rubble.

“We are still trying to locate our close relatives,” he said. "My sister and her family are still missing, and there is no way to reach them due to the landslides."

Quake rocks Afghanistan, Pakistan; at least 311 dead

People who were not in the most-affected quake zones were leery, too. Many fear aftershocks that could cause another disaster.

“No one is willing to go back into their houses,” said Faisal Sheikh, 26, an engineering student in Islamabad. “We are good when outside in the open. Let things get stabilized, then fear will vanish from people’s minds.”

Sharif said his government would soon announce details of a relief packages for victims. Authorities were working to clear landslides that had prevented aid from reaching remote areas. A cargo plane carrying 7 tons of rations — including 2,500 ready-made meals, 1,000 tents, medicine and other supplies — shuttled goods to isolated areas. Trucks were carrying another 20 tons of rations, including 10,000 ready-made meals, 1,000 tents and other supplies, authorities said.

“It has caused a delay in response at a time when the utmost rescue operations are needed,” said Omar Shah, a Pakistani soldier who has been working on rescue efforts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mohan reported from New Delhi; Bacon reported from McLean, Va.

Storm Eunice blows off rooftops with highest wind speeds on record ...

(CNN) Storm Eunice tore down rooftops and trees, crushed cars and sent planes skidding on London's runways as millions of people across the United Kingdom hunkered down at home to stay out of hurricane-strength winds.

The storm led to 10 fatalities across the UK and parts of western Europe, with wind speeds as high as 122 miles per hour (mph) -- the fastest on record in the country. High wind speeds is what make wind storms intense.

The UK Met Office expanded its rare "danger-to-life" weather alert ahead of the storm on Friday morning to include most of the south of England and some of Wales.

A woman was killed in north London's Muswell Hill on Friday after a tree fell on her car, according to a statement from the London Fire Brigade, while a man in his 50s was also killed on Friday while driving his car in Liverpool, according to Merseyside Police.

In Hampshire, one man died and another was seriously injured in a car accident. Both men, in their 20s, were in their vehicle when a tree fell on top of it during the storm. Police are investigating the exact circumstances of the incident and have appealed for witnesses.

In Ireland, which is also experiencing strong winds from Eunice, a man in his late 60s was killed after being hit by a falling tree, the national police service, known as the Gardaí, confirmed to CNN.

The man, who has not been named, died in County Wexford, southeastern Ireland, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The storm also wreaked havoc in mainland Europe, with German broadcaster ZDF reporting two deaths in Germany, with one person falling from his roof and the other crashing his car into a fallen tree.

A 79-year-old English man also died in western Belgium after strong winds knocked him off his barge and into the water of a marina, state broadcaster RTBF reported.

Meanwhile, the Amsterdam-Amstelland fire brigade reported three deaths due to fallen trees in the Netherlands on Friday, while most of the country was under the highest weather alert with people advised to stay home ahead of the storm.

Large sections of the O2 Arena rooftop were blown off on Friday.

The storm has damaged buildings in the UK, with footage shared to social media showing the roof of London's O2 arena severely damaged by strong wind.Op de #vrijheidslaan in Amsterdam is een boom op een fietser terecht gekomen. Deze fietser is hierdoor overleden.

Large sections of the fabric roof were shredded and ripped off by the gusts, while the building was evacuated and closed.

On its website, the 02 said an event at the venue Friday night would be rescheduled.

"The safety of our visitors remains of paramount importance, and we will continue to assess the ongoing situation and act accordingly," the statement said.

Elsewhere, a CNN reporter witnessed part of a rooftop flying off a home in the southwestern London area of Surbiton. The roof crushed a car parked on the street.

Social media video showed a building housing lifeboats with part of its rooftop blown off at Sennen beach in the country of Cornwall, where strong winds were pushing waves above a seawall. Police in Cornwall and neighboring Devon said they had received high volumes of calls about flying debris, collapsed roofs and fallen trees.

Other video footage shared on Twitter showed a church spire in Somerset collapsing in high winds.

Residents around the UK also posted images on social media of collapsed fences and trees in roads.

A large tree fell after high winds battered an area of Battersea, London on Friday.

Many homes were also left without power on Friday, including small pockets of London and larger areas of southern England.

As dozens of flights were canceled across London's major airports, more than 200,000 people tuned in to watch a live stream on YouTube of planes landing at London's Heathrow. The aircraft were seen battling strong gusts as they came into land, some of them wobbling mid-air, others skidding from side to side once they hit the runway.

The video, on the Big Jet TV channel, was accompanied by comical commentary by presenter Jerry Dyer, who kept viewers entertained by offering words of encouragement to the pilots, at one point saying: "Come on mate, you can do it!"

British Airways said it was grounding a number of planes and expected "significant disruption," but that most flights would go ahead as planned.

"Safety is our number one priority, and we're canceling a number of flights," British Airways said in a statement.

The airline said it was looking at deploying larger aircraft where possible to better withstand the weather.

Rail companies have urged customers to reconsider their plans, with blanket speed restrictions in place for most lines across the country.

In a statement Friday, Network Rail warned of high winds blowing trees and other debris onto railway lines, which then block trains and cause delays and cancelations.

Waves crash against the sea wall and Porthcawl Lighthouse in Bridgend, Wales, as Storm Eunice hits the UK on Friday.

A local butcher carries his shop sign across a snowy pavement in County Durham, Britain, as Storm Eunice makes landfall.

Authorities are expecting gusts to cause travel delays, power cuts and possible mobile phone coverage outages throughout Friday.

A sting jet could hit

Meteorologists have also raised the possibility of a sting jet, the weather phenomenon which made the 1987 Great Storm so destructive and deadly. Eighteen people were killed in that storm and 15 million trees were blown down in winds that topped 100 mph.

A sting jet is a very narrow and concentrated blast of powerful, upper-level winds that can form inside powerful weather systems. It descends to the the Earth's surface and can last a few hours, potentially causing damage to life and property, according to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

"The 'sting' refers to the cloud formation it creates, which resembles a scorpion's stinger," he said.

A person walks past a sign at Waterloo station, warning of severe weather.

Motorists drive through the sleet and snow along the M8 motorway near Bathgate in West Lothian as Storm Eunice sweeps across the UK after hitting the south coast earlier on Friday.

Eunice is the second storm in a week for the UK after Storm Dudley battered parts of Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland Wednesday, leaving thousands of homes without power. Those homes have since been reconnected.

Hannah Cloke, professor of Hydrology at Britain's University of Reading, urged people to stay home where possible.

She said people should not to take the red alert "lightly," as the winds were likely to uproot trees and roof tiles.

"If you're hit by one of those you will be seriously hurt or killed. Wind that strong will sweep people and vehicles off streets, and topple electricity lines," she said.

A climate connection?

There is little to suggest any link between human-made climate change and the frequency and intensity -- or windspeeds -- of storms in northern Europe at current levels of global warming.

But damage from windstorms are still getting worse because the rainfall associated with them is becoming more intense, a trend that many scientific studies do link to climate change. Sea level rise also plays a role.

"With more intense rainfall and higher sea levels as human-caused climate change continues to heat the planet, flooding from coastal storm surges and prolonged deluges will worse still further when these rare, explosive storms hit us in a warmer world," Richard Allan, a climate scientists at the University of Reading, said in a statement.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that if global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius, compared with levels before industrialization, then northern Europe would start to see an increase in the frequency of severe windstorms.

Sara Spary
Niamh Kennedy
Rob Iddiols
Derek Van Dam
Amy Cassidy