Fresh 6.3-magnitude earthquake hits Afghanistan's Herat

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has struck western Afghanistan, the US Geological Survey said, hitting an area where more than 2,500 people were killed after a similar tremor on the weekend.

The quake occurred on Wednesday at a shallow depth at around 5:10 am local time [00:40 GMT], with its epicentre about 29 kilometres north of the city of Herat, the USGS said.

The quake comes just days after a powerful earthquake of the same magnitude hit the same province, killing over 2,500 people.

Strong aftershocks followed the previous quake in western Afghanistan.

The quake over the weekend also was felt in the nearby Afghan provinces of Farah and Badghis, according to local media reports.

Frequent earthquakes

The country is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

In June last year, more than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands made homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake — the deadliest in Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century — struck the impoverished province of Paktika.

In March of this year, 13 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by a magnitude 6.5 quake, which hit near Jurm in northeastern Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is already in the grip of a grinding humanitarian crisis, following the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.