Helicopters are looking for survivors while the earthquake kills more than 800 people

The rescuers on helicopters are looking for the ruins of the villages far from eastern Afghanistan for the survivors of a powerful earthquake which killed 800 people and injured 1,800 others.

Many are feared trapped under the rubble of their houses after the earthquake of magnitude 6.0 struck the country’s border on Sunday with Pakistan.

The authorities searched by Air for the second day on Tuesday as the roads blocked with debris and the mountainous land in the affected areas made the land trip difficult.

The Taliban government has requested international aid. The UN has published emergency funds, while the United Kingdom has promised 1 million pounds Sterling ($ 1.3 million) of aid.

The Sunday earthquake has been one of the strongest to hit Afghanistan in recent years. The country is very subject to earthquakes because it is located above a certain number of flawing lines where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

In 2023, more than 1,400 people died after a series of 6.3 earthquake tremors struck west of Afghanistan, near the city of Herat.

The survivors of the Sunday earthquake were brought to the hospital in Jalalabad, which was overwhelmed by hundreds of patients per day even before the disaster.

Mir Zaman told the BBC that he had left his children who died on the rubble alone.

“It was dark. There was no light. Someone lent me a lamp, then I used a shovel and a picking to unearth them. There was no one to help because everyone was touched. So many people died in my village. Some are still buried. Women’s families are dead,” he said.

Maiwand, two and a half years old, suffered head injuries and a blood loss.

“You can see his situation. It’s so tragic. The earthquake was fatal. I want doctors to treat him, heal him,” said the child’s uncle Khawat Gul.

The most recent earthquake struck Afghanistan when it is in shock under serious drought and what the UN calls an unprecedented crisis of hunger.

The country has also experienced massive aid reductions, especially from the United States this year, which reduces aid more than many of these people could have obtained. This disaster could not have arrived at a worse moment.

The British Foreign Minister David Lammy said that the help of the United Kingdom would be “channeled by experienced partners”, the United Nations (UNFPA) population and the international Red Cross.

India delivered 1,000 tents to Kabul, his Minister of Foreign Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar wrote on X after talking to his Taliban counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi.

The Indian mission also helps to move 15 tonnes of Kabul’s food to Kunar province, which was seriously struck by the earthquake, he said, adding that India would send more rescue items.

China and Switzerland have also promised support.

Survivors will need accommodation, shelter and covers, said Amy Martin, who heads the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Coordination (OCHA) in Afghanistan.