Many children feared dead in Afghanistan quake

(FASTNEWS | AFGHANISTAN) – Doctors in Afghanistan have told that many children may have been killed in Wednesday’s earthquake.

More than 1,000 people died in the disaster, and heavy rain, threadbare resources and rugged terrain are hampering rescue workers.

Unknown numbers were buried in the rubble of ruined, often mud-built homes by the magnitude 6.1 earthquake.

One woman in hospital in Paktika province told reporters she had lost 19 family members.

“Seven in one room, five in another, four in another, then three in another, have all been killed in my family,” she said from her bed.

By Wednesday night Taliban officials said search and rescue operations had finished in most places, although in remoter areas some continued still.

“We can’t reach the area – networks are too weak,” a Taliban spokesman was quoted as saying earlier.

The United Nations is among those scrambling to provide emergency shelter and food aid to remote areas in Paktika.

Survivors and rescuers have told that the villages completely destroyed near the epicentre of the quake, of ruined roads and mobile phone towers – and of their fears that the death toll will rise further. Some 1,500 people were also injured, officials say.

The Taliban authorities have called for more international aid.