Helicopters are looking for survivors as the earthquake kills more than 800 people

Helicopter rescuers are looking for the ruins of remote villages in East Afghanistan for survivors of a powerful earthquake that killed 800 people and wounds 1800 others.

Many are trapped under the ruins of their homes after the magnitude 6.0 earthquake, hit on Sunday near the country’s border with Pakistan.

Authorities searched by Air for the second day on Tuesday, as roads blocked from waste and mountain terrain in the affected areas make it difficult to travel to Earth.

The Taliban government appeals for international assistance. The UN released emergency as the United Kingdom promised £ 1 million ($ 1.3 million) to help.

The Earthquake on Sunday has been one of the strongest that has hit Afghanistan in recent years. The country is very predisposed to earthquakes because it is located at the top of a number of lines of the fault, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

In 2023, more than 1,400 people died after a series of 6.3 magnitude earthquakes affected Western Afghanistan, near the city of Herat.

The survivors of the earthquake on Sunday were brought to a hospital in Jalalabad, which was overwhelmed with hundreds of patients every day even before the disaster.

Mir Zaman told the BBC that he removed his dead children from the ruins himself.

“It was dark. There was no light. Someone gave me a lamp loan, and then I used a shovel and took an ax to dig them. There was no one to help because they were all affected. So many people died in my village. Some are still buried. The whole families have died,” he said.

Two and a half year old, Lywand suffered head injuries and blood loss.

“You can see his situation. It’s so tragic. The earthquake was deadly. I want doctors to treat him to cure him,” said the uncle of the child, Khawat Gul.

The most recent earthquake hit Afghanistan when he tried under heavy drought and what the UN calls an unprecedented hunger crisis.

The country has also experienced massive redundancies to help, especially from the United States this year, which further reduces the help many of these people may have. This disaster could not come in a worse time.

British Foreign Secretary David Lamie said the United Kingdom aid would be “channeled through experienced partners”, a UN population fund (UNFPA) and the International Red Cross.

India delivered 1,000 tents to Kabul, his foreign minister Subramam Jaishankar wrote on X after talking to his Taliban colleague Amir Han Mutaki.

The Indian mission also helps to move 15 tonnes of food from Kabul to Kunar province, which was heavily affected by the earthquake, he said, adding that India would send more help.

China and Switzerland also promised support.

The survivors will need homes, shelter and blankets, said Amy Martin, who heads the United Nations service for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCA) in Afghanistan.