• As news from isolated mountain villages trickles in, the death toll is expected to rise.
• After the magnitude 6.1 earthquake, homes were reduced to rubble and people covered in blankets lay on the ground
• According to health and aid workers, an undetermined number of people are still trapped in the rubble and in remote areas.

According to disaster management experts, the death toll from the earthquake that struck Afghanistan on Wednesday has reached 1,000, with more than 600 people injured. As news from isolated mountain villages trickles in, the death toll is expected to rise.

After the magnitude 6.1 earthquake, homes were reduced to rubble and people covered in blankets lay on the ground, according to images posted on Afghan media.

According to health and aid workers, an undetermined number of people are still trapped in the rubble and in remote areas. Rescue efforts have also been hampered by challenging weather conditions, such as persistent rain, landslides, and the fact that many villages are tucked away in difficult-to-reach hillside regions.

“There are still many bodies buried beneath the ground. The Islamic Emirate’s rescue teams have come, and they are attempting to remove the injured and dead with the assistance of the locals “An employee of a hospital in the severely affected Paktika province spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The hard-line Islamist Taliban authorities, who took control of the nation in August after two decades of war and have been cut off from much outside support due to sanctions, will face a significant challenge in mounting a rescue mission. The Taliban-led ministry of defence is leading rescue efforts.

The topography and weather would make it extremely difficult to rescue anybody trapped under rubble, according to Loretta Hieber Girardet of the United Nations’ disaster risk reduction office.

The lack of simple access to the area will make setting up a humanitarian operation difficult from the start, she added, adding that rain mixed with the tremor increased the risk of landslides for aid personnel.

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