One of Afghanistan's worst earthquakes killed more than 800 people and injured at least 2,800, authorities said, as helicopters ferried the wounded to hospital after they were plucked from the rubble of homes being combed for survivors.
The disaster is set to further stretch the resources of the war-torn nation's Taliban administration, already grappling with humanitarian crises, from a sharp drop in aid to the pushback of hundreds of thousands of Afghans by neighbouring countries.
A spokesperson for the health ministry in Kabul, called for international aid to tackle the devastation from the quake of magnitude 6 that struck around midnight, at a depth of 10km.
"We need it because here lots of people lost their lives and houses," he said.
The quake killed 812 people in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, said an administration spokesman.
Rescuers were battling to reach remote mountainous areas cut off from mobile networks along the Pakistani border, where mudbrick homes dotting the slopes collapsed in the earthquake.
"All our ... teams have been mobilised to accelerate assistance, so that comprehensive and full support can be provided," said a health ministry spokesperson, citing efforts in areas from security to food and health.
Reuters Television images showed helicopters ferrying out the affected, while residents helped security forces and medics carry the wounded to ambulances in an area with a long history of earthquakes and floods.
Military rescue teams fanned out across the region, the defence ministry said in a statement, with 40 flights carrying away 420 wounded and dead.
Widespread destruction following earthquake in eastern Afghanistan
The quake razed three villages in Kunar, with substantial damage in many others, authorities said.
It was Afghanistan's third major deadly quake since the Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign forces withdrew, triggering a cut to the international funding that formed the bulk of government finances.
Even humanitarian aid, aimed at bypassing political institutions to serve urgent needs, has shrunk to $767m (€654m) this year, down from $3.8bn in 2022.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake that killed 1,000 people in the eastern region that year was the first major natural disaster faced by the Taliban government.
Humanitarian agencies say they are fighting a forgotten crisis in Afghanistan, where the United Nations estimates more than half the population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
Diplomats and aid officials say crises elsewhere in the world, along with donor frustration over the Taliban's policies towards women, including curbs on those who are aid workers, have spurred the cuts in funding.
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"So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work," a spokesperson for Afghanistan's foreign office said.
China was ready to provide disaster relief assistance "according to Afghanistan's needs and within its capacity," a spokesperson from its foreign ministry said later.
In a post on X, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said its mission in Afghanistan was preparing to help those in areas devastated by the quake.
Humanitarian officials and locals say almost two years after a powerful tremor hit the western city of Herat, many villages are still recovering and living in temporary structures.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
