An earthquake of 6.1 magnitude killed at least 1,000 people and 1,500 people got injured in Afghanistan early on Wednesday.

The checks were being conducted to see if the casualty toll might rise, Afghanistan’s disaster management officials said.

News agency Reuters confirmed that the majority of deaths were reported in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, where 100 people were killed and 250 injured. The report said deaths were also reported in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Khost.

As per the US Geological Survey (USGS), the quake struck about 44km from the city of Khost in southeastern Afghanistan at a depth of 51km while there were no damage or deaths were reported in Pakistan.

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In a tweet, European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said that shaking was felt over some 500 km by about 119 million people in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. It was felt in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, as well as Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, the EMSC tweeted.

Strong and long jolts, a resident of the Afghan capital, Kabul, posted on EMSC website. It was strong, said a resident of the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Photographs on Afghan media showed houses reduced to rubble.

Afghanistan has been suffering from a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took over in August. It came after the US army had withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan after 28 years.

In response to the Taliban takeover, many governments have imposed sanctions on Afghanistan’s banking sector and cut billions of dollars worth of development aid.

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