Hope dwindles for survivors days after deadly Afghan quake

KABUL

Hope of finding survivors in the rubble of homes devastated by the weekend's powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan faded on Sept. 3, as emergency services struggled to reach remote villages.

A magnitude-6.0 earthquake hit the mountainous region bordering Pakistan on Aug. 31, leaving residents huddled in the open air for fear of powerful aftershocks and desperately trying to pull people from under flattened buildings.

The earthquake killed more than 1,400 people and injured over 3,300, Taliban authorities said, making it one of the deadliest in decades to hit the impoverished country.

The vast majority of the casualties were in Kunar province, with a dozen dead and hundreds hurt in nearby Nangarhar and Laghman provinces.

In Kunar's Nurgal district, victims remained trapped under the rubble and were difficult to rescue, local official Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad told AFP yesterday.

"There are some villages which have still not received aid," he said.

Landslides caused by the earthquake stymied access to already isolated villages.

The non-governmental group Save the Children said one of their aid teams "had to walk for 20 kilometers to reach villages cut off by rock falls, carrying medical equipment on their backs with the help of community members."

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned the number of casualties from the earthquake was expected to rise, "as many remain trapped in destroyed buildings."

In two days, the Taliban government's Defense Ministry said it organized 155 helicopter flights to evacuate some 2,000 injured and their relatives to regional hospitals.