There are fears of casualties after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Afghanistan

An earthquake struck northern Afghanistan near Mazar-e Sharif, one of the country’s largest cities, around 20:30 GMT (01:00 local time).

The quake had a magnitude of 6.3 and a depth of 28 km (17 miles), according to the US Geological Survey.

The agency also warned of “significant casualties” and a “potentially widespread” disaster.

A Taliban spokesman in Balkh province – whose capital is Mazar-e Sharif – wrote to X that four people were killed and “many people were injured” in the Sholgara district. The BBC cannot independently verify this figure.

In an earlier post, Haji Zaid wrote that they had received “reports of minor injuries and superficial damage from all areas of the province.”

“Most injuries are caused by people falling from tall buildings,” he wrote.

Mazar-e-Sharif is home to more than 500,000 people. Many of the town’s residents ran into the streets when the quake struck, fearing their houses would collapse, AFP reported.

The Taliban spokesman in Balkh also released a video of X that appeared to show debris strewn on the ground at the Blue Mosque, a local landmark in Mazar-e-Sharif.

The religious complex is believed to house the tomb of the first Shiite imam, a religious leader believed to possess divine knowledge. It is now a place where pilgrims gather to pray and celebrate religious events.

Khalid Zadran, a Taliban spokesman for police in Kabul, wrote to X that police teams were “closely monitoring the situation.”

Monday’s quake follows a 6.0-magnitude quake in Afghanistan’s mountainous eastern region in late August that killed more than 1,000 people.

This earthquake was particularly deadly because the country houses in the region were usually made of mud and timber. Residents were stranded when their houses collapsed during the earthquake.

Afghanistan is highly prone to earthquakes due to its location atop a number of fault lines where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.