More than 2000 people have been killed in earthquakes in Afghanistan and more than 9000 injured, the Taliban administration says, in the deadliest tremors to rock the quake-prone mountainous country in years.
The Saturday quakes in the west of the country hit 35 km northwest of the city of Herat, with one measuring 6.3 magnitude, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
They were among the world's deadliest quakes in a year when tremors in Turkey and Syria killed an estimated 50,000 in February.
Ministry of Disasters spokesman Mullah Janan Sayeeq said 2053 people were dead, 9240 injured and 1320 houses damaged or destroyed.
The death toll spiked from 500 reported in the morning by the Red Crescent and 16 on Saturday night.
Ten rescue teams were in the area of the province, which borders Iran, Sayeeq told a press conference.
More than 200 dead had been brought to various hospitals, a Herat health department official who identified himself as Dr Danish told Reuters, adding most of them were women and children.
Bodies had been "taken to several places - military bases, hospitals", Danish said.
Beds were set up outside the main hospital in Herat to receive a flood of victims, photos on social media showed.
Food, drinking water, medicine, clothes and tents were urgently needed for rescue and relief, the head of the Taliban's political office in Qatar, Suhail Shaheen, said in a message to journalists.
The medieval minarets of Herat sustained some damage, photographs on social media showed, with cracks visible and tiles fallen off.
Hemmed in by mountains, Afghanistan has a long history of strong earthquakes, many in the rugged Hindu Kush region bordering Pakistan.
Death tolls often rise when remote locations are hit, and decades of war have left infrastructure in shambles, making relief and rescue operations difficult.
Afghanistan's health care system, reliant almost entirely on foreign aid, has faced crippling cuts in the two years since the Taliban took over and most other forms of international assistance, which formed the backbone of the economy, were halted.
Diplomats and aid officials say concerns over Taliban restrictions on women and competing global humanitarian crises are causing donors to pull back on financial support.
The Islamist government has ordered most Afghan female aid staff not to work, although with exemptions in health and education.
The quakes caused panic in Herat, resident Naseema said on Saturday.
"People left their houses, we all are on the streets," she wrote in a text message to Reuters, adding that the city was feeling aftershocks.
The World Health Organisation said on Sunday Herat province had 202 public health facilities, one of which was the major regional hospital where 500 casualties were taken.
A vast majority of the facilities are smaller, basic health centres and logistical challenges were hindering operations, particularly in remote areas, the WHO said.
"While search and rescue operations remain ongoing, casualties in these areas have not yet been fully identified," it said.
with AP
