"In the town of Khulm, near the epicenter, people dug through the rubble of collapsed mud brick homes with shovels and picked through debris to salvage what belongings they could. Local resident Ahmad Zia said the air was polluted from all the dust that rose from the ruins of houses. "We pulled the bodies of two people from the rubble, and their funerals will be held today," he said."
"Footage on social media from Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province, showed several bricks had fallen from the walls of the Blue Mosque but the structure remained intact. The centuries-old site, one of Afghanistan's most revered religious landmarks, is a major gathering place during Islamic and cultural festivals. The impoverished country often faces difficulty in responding to such natural disasters, especially in remote regions."
"The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake's epicenter was located 22 kilometers (14 miles) west-southwest of the town of Khulm, and that it struck at 12:59 a.m. at a depth of 28 kilometers (17 miles). The deputy spokesman for Afghanistan's National Disaster Management Authority, Qari Taj Mohammad Hemat, said the earthquake had struck Balkh, Samangan, Sar-e-Pul, and Kunduz provinces and had left 20 people dead and 643 others injured, of whom 25 were in critical condition."
A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck northern Afghanistan before dawn, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 640. The quake caused collapse of many mud-brick homes, leaving hundreds of houses destroyed and residents digging through rubble to recover belongings and bodies. Dust from ruined houses polluted the air and families prepared funerals for victims. Bricks fell from the historic Blue Mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif, though the main structure remained intact. The U.S. Geological Survey located the epicenter near Khulm at a depth of 28 kilometers. Multiple northern provinces were affected and response capacity is limited by poverty and poorly built rural housing; an August quake previously killed more than 2,200 people.
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