Good afternoon. An earthquake in
Afghanistan has killed more than 800
people, but there are fears entire
villages have been flattened. The
Taliban run government says 2,500 people
have been injured. The magnitude 6 quake
in the east of the country struck just
before midnight our time. It was felt by
more than 1.2 2 million people shaking
buildings from the capital Kbul to
neighboring Pakistan's capital
Islamabad. But the real problem is the
isolated villages where the majority of
people live in lowrise mudbrick homes
that are vulnerable to collapse. And
reaching those villages, many cut off
because of road blockages, is extremely
difficult. Our correspondent Rachel
Young has the latest.
In one of the most remote corners of
Afghanistan, they are pulling the living
and the dead out of what's left of their
homes. Built from stone wooden straw,
these buildings were no match for an
earthquake that hit just after midnight,
splitting families as they slept.
>> My dad, my dad, cries this little boy.
But this is footage from Afghan
television, and his father's fate is not
yet clear.
What is obvious is how little help there
is. Only helicopters can reach them, and
there aren't enough stretches to cope.
Almost the entire village has collapsed.
There are children trapped under the
rubble. The elderly are under the
rubble. Young people are under the
rubble. We need help here.
But there are far more injured than
there are helicopters. And already many
of the region's hospitals are
overwhelmed.
The Taliban run government says it put a
search and rescue operation into place
shortly after the quake hit. But this is
one of the poorest countries in the
world and some of the worst hit areas
are still to be reached. Right now
because of the earthquake there have
been several landslides that have
happened and that have blocked even the
existing roadways and pathways.
So search and rescue efforts are going
to be extraordinarily difficult.
There is aid being sent in but this is a
country where more than half the
population was already in need of
humanitarian assistance. That makes the
task of helping the injured and the
homeless even tougher as they race to
get what little help they have to the
thousands who need it. Rachel Younger,
ITV News.