More than 800 people have been killed and 2,000 injured following a 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan, a government spokesperson said.
Taliban-led health authorities say the final casualty figure is still not confirmed.
The powerful quake hit a mountainous area about 27 kilometres east-north-east of Jalalabad, Afghanistan's fifth-largest city, at around 11:47pm local time on Sunday.
Jalalabad has a population of 300,000, with many of its buildings having poor construction.
Local officials said the provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar had been worst affected.
The quake was 8km deep, with shaking categorised as severe by the US Geological Survey (USGS), a governmental department which monitors earthquakes.
Early reports showed 30 dead in a single village, the Afghan health ministry said.
'We need help here'
Sadiqullah, who lives in the Maza Dara area of Nurgal, said he was woken by a deep boom that sounded like a big storm approaching.
He ran to where his children were sleeping and rescued three of them. He was about to return to get the rest of his family when the room fell on top of him.
“I was half-buried and unable to get out,” he said from Nangarhar Hospital.
“My wife and two sons are dead and my father is injured and in hospital with me. We were trapped for three to four hours until people from other areas arrived and pulled me out."
A resident in Nurgal district, one of the worst-affected areas in Kunar, said nearly the entire village was destroyed.
“Children are under the rubble. The elderly are under the rubble. Young people are under the rubble,” said the villager, who did not give his name.
“We need help here,” he pleaded.
"We need people to come here and join us. Let us pull out the people who are buried. There is no one who can come and remove dead bodies from under the rubble.”
[map]Hundreds of injured were taken to hospital, said Najibullah Hanif, the provincial information head, with figures likely to rise as reports arrived from remote areas with few roads.
There was a second quake some 20 minutes later in the same area, with a magnitude of 4.5.
'Challenging' rescue mission
Landslides have cut off roads in the mountainous Kunar province, forcing rescuers to rely on helicopters.
"The number of casualties and injuries is high, but since the area is difficult to access, our teams are still on site," health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman said.
The Taliban's defence ministry has said 40 rescue flights have carried 420 dead and wounded from the area.
"All our ... teams have been mobilised to accelerate assistance, so that comprehensive and full support can be provided," ministry spokesperson Abdul Maten Qanee said.
The Taliban government are appealing for urgent international help.
"So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work," a foreign office spokesperson said.
Afghanistan is prone to earthquakes
Earthquakes are common in eastern Afghanistan, near the Hindu Kush mountain range where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
On August 19, a 5.17-magnitude quake hit the region, followed by a 5.6-magnitude quake on August 27.
Two earthquakes above magnitude 5 also struck the region in April this year.
The country's west has also been hit by a series of earthquakes, with more than 1,000 people killed in quakes there last year.
A magnitude-6.3 earthquake that hit the western Herat province in October 2023 was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory.
The Taliban government estimated that at least 4,000 people died while the UN gave a far lower death toll of about 1,500.
ABC/wires
