6.0 magnitude quake strikes Afghanistan: Over 600 killed, more than 1,000 injured

September 1, 2025

Kabul, Sep 1: The death toll from the earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has risen to 622, with more than 1,000 others injured, reported the state-run Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA) on Monday.

Rescue teams are navigating remote areas with limited communication to assess the full extent of the damage and provide aid, with officials noting that the toll is preliminary as efforts continue, the official media added. A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck the eastern part of Afghanistan at 11:47 p.m. local time on August 31, with its epicentre 27 km at a depth of eight km, according to the US Geological Survey, Xinhua news agency reported quoting the RTA.

Afghanistan is especially vulnerable to earthquakes as it sits on top of several fault lines where the Indian and Eurasian plates meet. The mountainous terrain of eastern Afghanistan is also prone to landslides, making it harder for emergency services to carry out rescues. A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, underscoring the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest countries to natural disasters.

Earlier, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake had struck Afghanistan on October 7, 2023, along with strong aftershocks. The Taliban government had estimated that at least 4,000 perished. It was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory. Over the past decade more than 7,000 people have been killed in earthquakes in Afghanistan, the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.

There are an average of 560 deaths a year from earthquakes. An earthquake in May 1998, in Takhar and Badakhshan provinces in northern Afghanistan, killed about 4,000 people. Nearly 100 villages and 16,000 houses were destroyed or damaged, and 45,000 people were made homeless.

4 thousand people were killed in 2023

Earlier, a devastating earthquake struck Afghanistan on 7 October 2023. The Taliban government claimed 4 thousand deaths in this earthquake, while the United Nations confirmed 1500 deaths.

Afghanistan has a history of powerful earthquakes. The Hindukush mountain range is considered seismically active, where earthquakes occur every year.

Afghanistan is located between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. This fault line goes up to Herat in Afghanistan. Earthquakes occur when there is movement in the plates.

Why do earthquakes occur?

The surface of our earth is mainly made up of 7 large and many small tectonic plates. These plates keep floating continuously and sometimes collide with each other. Due to collision, sometimes the corners of the plates get bent and due to excessive pressure these plates start breaking. In such a situation, the energy coming out from below finds a way to come out and after this disturbance an earthquake occurs.