KABUL – Two earthquakes, with magnitudes of 6.0 and 4.5, struck eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border late Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The first quake, measuring magnitude 6.0, hit at 11:47 pm local time with its epicenter near Jalalabad in the Nangarhar province at a shallow depth of 8 kilometers.
Fifteen people were injured and hospitalized, as confirmed by Naqibullah Rahimi, a spokesperson for the Nangarhar Public Health Department. A second, weaker earthquake of magnitude 4.5 followed 20 minutes later.
This seismic activity comes nearly a year after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in October 2023 caused extensive casualties in the region, highlighting the area’s vulnerability to seismic events.