Powerful Earthquake Rocks Afghanistan, Leaving 800 Dead And Thousands More Injured

Afghanistan was rocked by an earthquake on Monday.

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan, resulting in over 800 people dead and thousands more injured.

The earthquake marks the third time the Taliban government has had to deal with a significant natural disaster since taking over the country in 2021, after the United States withdrew its forces.

CBS reported the metrics of the quake and the impact it had:

A strong earthquake in far eastern Afghanistan killed more than 800 people and left at least 2,500 wounded as it destroyed numerous villages, a spokesman for the country’s Taliban government said Monday. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told journalists in Kabul that the vast majority of the casualties were in Kunar province, but that 12 people were killed and 255 injured in neighboring Nangarhar.

The quake struck several towns in Kunar province late on Sunday evening, near the city of Jalalabad in neighboring Nangahar province. The 6.0 magnitude quake struck at 11:47 p.m. local time (3:17 p.m. Eastern) and was centered 17 miles east-northeast of Jalalabad, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was just five miles deep. Shallower earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

Several aftershocks rattled the region throughout the night, including a powerful, shallow 5.2-magnitude temblor just after 4 a.m., USGS data show. The first quake shook buildings from Kabul to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital some 230 miles away, for several seconds, journalists with the French news agency AFP said.

Here are some of the scenes:

⚡️ 825 KILLED, 3,100+ injured after 6.1 earthquake rocks Afghanistan

WHOLE villages flattened, 1,000+ homes gone pic.twitter.com/BGQRpvOjGi

— RT (@RT_com) September 1, 2025

BREAKING 🚨 Over 250 Dead, 500 Injured in Afghanistan Earthquake pic.twitter.com/wz8v2pRVkn

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) September 1, 2025

🚨 BREAKING: A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck near the Pakistan border late Sunday, centered close to Jalalabad, impacting Kunar and Nangarhar provinces

More than 800 people died and many others remained trapped under debris in remote villages of eastern Afghanistan's… pic.twitter.com/SfKi9JNuVt

— American Press 🗽 (@americanspress) September 1, 2025

ABC News reported the Taliban government believes many people are trapped under the rubble:

In a phone interview with ABC News, Shah Mehmood, a Taliban government official in Nangahar Province said more people are feared trapped under rubble in remote villages.

Deadly earthquakes have struck Afghanistan several times in recent years, including a 5.9 magnitude quake in June 2022 and a 6.3 magnitude one in October 2023. The death toll for each of those quakes rose to over 1,000 people, local officials said in their aftermaths.

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The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said in a statement on Monday that its local staffers were “deeply saddened” by the devastating quake, which “claimed hundreds of lives, injuring many more.”

The Afghan health minister said that several villages in the Nurgal district of Kunar — including Sholt, Arit, Mamagal, Wadir and others — had been all but destroyed. Others suffered significant damage, the minister said.

Some of the injured had been evacuated and rescue efforts were ongoing, the ministry said.

“Sadly, tonight’s earthquake has caused loss of life and property damage in some of our eastern provinces,” Mujahid said in a post on social media.