Islamabad, Pakistan and London – the death toll from the earthquake on Sunday in Afghanistan increased to 1,109 on Tuesday, with another 2,938 people injured, according to Shah Mahmood, a Taliban official in the province of Nangarhar.
Mahmood said the Magnitude 6.0 earthquake, which hit just before midnight, destroyed about 8,000 houses.
Emergency responders have not yet reached some villages, where they fear there may be more dead and wounded under the debris, he said.
Afghan volunteers and Taliban security staff work to move injured people near a military helicopter after earthquakes in the Mazar Dara de Nurgal village, a district of the Kunar province, in eastern Afghanistan, on September 1, 2025.
Deputy Kohsar/AFP through Getty Images
The powerful earthquake epicenter was about 17 miles east of Jalalabad, according to the United States geological service.
Almost all deaths were in the province of Kunar, authorities said in a statement shared Monday by Zabihullah Mjahid, a government spokesman. Others were killed in the province of Nangarhar, said Mufti Abdul Matin Qani, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.
An Afghan man spends a damaged house after earthquakes in the town of Nurgal de Mazar Dara, a district of the province of Kunar, in eastern Afghanistan, on September 1, 2025.
Deputy Kohsar/AFP through Getty Images
Mortal earthquakes have attacked Afghanistan several times in recent years, including an earthquake of magnitude of 5.9 in June 2022 and a magnitude of 6.3 in October 2023. The number of deaths for each of those earthquakes increased to more than 1,000 people, local officials said in their sequelae.
It is estimated that 12,000 people have been directly affected by Sunday, according to the World Health Organization in Afghanistan.
“As the devastation scale of the earthquake #Afghanistan becomes clearer, my deepest condolences go to the victims and their families,” said Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur for the country, he said In social networks Tuesday.
In a Nangarhar hospital, several injured children were without their parents or relatives, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Health.
“These are painful and unbearable moments,” Dr. Sharafat Zaman Amar, the spokesman, saying In a publication on social networks.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
