Estimated 1800 Killed in Afghan Quake

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 26, 2002

Estimated 1800 Killed in Afghan Quake - Karzai

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Earthquake in Afghanistan kills estimated 1,800 people, interim leader Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday. According to earlier report, an Afghan defense minister spokesman said on Tuesday more than 1500 people have been killed or injured and up to 10,000 made homeless in a major earthquake in northern Afghanistan.

"Around 4,000 houses have been destroyed and 10,000 people have been displaced and made homeless," spokesman Mira Jan said.

"Most shops and houses in Nahrin were destroyed and most people have fled for the hills."

A UN spokeswoman said earlier that at least 100 people had been killed and more than 200 houses destroyed around the town of Nahrin, Baghlan province, when the quake struck at about 7:30 pm (1500 GMT) Monday.

But Jan said shockwaves continued to hit the area Tuesday morning and the Afghan interim authority was struggling to get help to the victims.

"There are still shocks going on every two hours or so. So far we have not managed to get any help or relief to the area," he said.

"We urgently need tents, medical teams and medicine, food and clothes for the victims. The government doesn't have anything available to give to them + you know that."

UN spokeswoman Rebecca Richards said foreign relief agencies and the International Security Assistance Force based in Kabul were holding emergency meetings Tuesday to plan rescue efforts.

Meteorological officials in Strasbourg late Monday said the quake's magnitude was 5.8 on the Richter scale and the epicentre was around 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the Afghan capital Kabul.

But seismological officials in the northwestern Pakistani border town of Peshawar said the quake measured 6.0.

Seismological department official Alamdar Hussain said there had been no reports of casualties in Pakistan.

It is the second severe earthquake to strike in the Hindu Kush mountains of northern Afghanistan this month. More than 70 people died in Samangan province, northwest of Baghlan, in the first quake on March 3.

In February 1998, a quake measuring 6.4 hit the northeastern Afghan province of Takhar, killing 4,500. Three months later, a quake measuring 7.1 hit Takhar and the neighbouring province of Badakshan, killing 5,000 people.

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