Afghanistan: 5.3-magnitude earthquake kills eight people and injures nine others

Afghanistan's state news agency reported on Monday that a 5.3-magnitude earthquake killed eight people and injured nine others.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said that quake was felt in the provinces of Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar, and in the capital Kabul.

Highlighting that casualties could rise, Mawlavi Najibullah Hanif, the spokesman for the provincial governor, told the Bakhtar News Agency "Sunday night's earthquake has caused financial and human losses in Kunar province."

After a powerful quake killed more than 1,000 people three months ago in Afghanistan, the country was still recovering.

Lying near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, the Hindu Kush mountain range passes through Afghanistan which is frequently hit by earthquakes.

When a 7.5-magnitude earthquake ripped across Pakistan and Afghanistan, approximately 380 people were killed in 2015.

Around 200 people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed in the floods that hit Afghanistan in recent months.

Due to its isolation from the rest of the world due to the Taliban's imposition of hardline Islamist rule such disasters pose a huge logistical challenge for Afghanistan.

(With inputs from agencies)

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