A powerful earthquake struck Afghanistan overnight, killing eight members of a single family in Kabul province, the country’s health ministry reported on Saturday.
The 5.8-magnitude tremor hit at 8:42 pm local time (1612 GMT) on Friday, originating 186 kilometres (115 miles) beneath the surface in northeastern Badakhshan province, according to the US Geological Survey.
The quake’s impact was felt across much of Afghanistan, including the capital, Kabul, AFP journalists reported.
“In the Gosfand Dara area of Kabul Province, eight members of a family died as a result of the earthquake,” Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman said in a message to media.
He further noted that a two-year-old child was the only survivor from the household, with the country’s disaster management agency confirming that the boy sustained injuries during the tremor.
Afghanistan, located along the volatile Hindu Kush mountain range where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates converge, is frequently shaken by earthquakes.
In August, a shallow magnitude 6 quake struck eastern Afghanistan, devastating mountainside villages and claiming more than 2,200 lives—the deadliest tremor in the country’s recent history.
