More than 600 people were killed by a 6-magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, the authorities said on Monday. Officials said the death toll was likely to rise significantly as rescue workers rushed to reach communities in mountainous areas hit by the quake, which left more than 1,300 people injured.
The epicenter of the quake late Sunday was near Jalalabad, a city of about 200,000 people, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Less than 100 miles away, residents of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, fled their homes as aftershocks were felt across the city throughout the night.
The quake was a shallow one, just five miles from the earth’s surface, which made it likelier to be destructive. Soon after the initial shaking stopped, people scrambled in the middle of the night to reach neighbors trapped under the debris of collapsed houses, according to videos shared on social media.
Road access was difficult for rescue workers in the area’s steep terrain, where landslides had struck, said Kate Carey, the deputy head of the United Nations’ office of humanitarian affairs in Afghanistan. She said at least four eastern provinces, Nangahar, Nuristan, Laghman and Kunar, had been affected by the quake.
Earthquakes are a prevalent danger in Afghanistan and other countries in the region, where many people live on or near geological faults. Many of Afghanistan’s most densely populated towns and cities sit on or near fault lines. In 2022, a 5.9-magnitude quake that struck a remote area of Afghanistan’s southeast killed at least 1,300 people, according to the United Nations. The Taliban, who have ruled Afghanistan since 2021, said at the time that more than 4,000 people had died.
On Monday, Sharafat Amar, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Health, said on X that several villages had been destroyed.
In neighboring Pakistan, tremors were felt across several districts of the northwestern border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well in as parts of Punjab Province, the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir and the capital, Islamabad, the Pakistan Meteorological Department said. No major damage or casualties have been reported in Pakistan so far, officials said.
The quake is the latest in a series of overlapping crises for Afghanistan. Hundreds of hospitals and health care centers have been forced to shut down since the Trump administration suspended U.S. foreign aid earlier this year. More than two million Afghan nationals have returned to the country, in some cases by force, after being expelled from Pakistan or Iran amid a wave of xenophobia and political pressure in those countries.
More are scheduled to arrive in the coming days. The earthquake struck as many Afghans living in Pakistan were on their way to Afghanistan, ahead of a Monday deadline set by the Pakistani government for all of them to leave or face arrest and deportation.
One of those Afghans, Said Meer, had planned to arrive in Jalalabad on Monday with his two wives and 12 children, a day after leaving Lahore, the city in eastern Pakistan where he was born and spent his whole life. He was hoping to transfer his livestock business to Jalalabad.
On Monday, the colorful truck carrying Mr. Meer’s extended family and their meager belongings was at a border crossing, waiting to enter Afghanistan.
“May God watch over our Afghan people. War, earthquakes, poverty — every hardship is a test from God,” Mr. Meer said by telephone. Despite the destruction brought by the quake, he said he still planned to move to Jalalabad, 40 miles from the border.
Afghanistan has been in the grip of one of the world’s most severe and persistent humanitarian crises, with less than 30 percent of its humanitarian needs covered for 2025, according to the United Nations’ office for humanitarian affairs. The U.N. says that more than half of the country’s 42 million people are in need of aid.
Since the Taliban returned to power, international assistance has gradually dwindled. Under President Trump, the United States, which last year provided 45 percent of the aid supplied to Afghanistan, has suspended or eliminated nearly all of its contributions. Several other European countries, including Britain, France and Sweden, have also cut back on assistance.
The Taliban have repeatedly called on foreign governments and businesses to finance Afghanistan’s reconstruction from four decades of war, but only Russia has formally recognized them as the country’s official government.
Zia ur-Rehman contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.
Elian Peltier is an international correspondent for The Times, covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Mike Ives is a reporter for The Times based in Seoul, covering breaking news around the world.
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