Taliban says death toll soars past 2,000 after powerful earthquake rocks Afghanistan

Emergency crews scrambled Sunday to rescue survivors after a powerful earthquake rocked Afghanistan, killing more than 2,000 people and injuring thousands more.

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook western Afghanistan near the Iranian border on Saturday. 

Multiple people were trapped under rubble and buildings were destroyed, according to the BBC. 

"So far more than 1,000 injured women, children, and elderly citizens have been included in our records, and about 120 people have lost their lives," the province's disaster management chief Mosa Ashari told reporters.

The ruling Taliban government updated the death toll Sunday to more than 2,000.

Abdul Wahid Rayan, a spokesman at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said entire villages were destroyed as he pleaded for international help.

“Besides the 2,060 dead, 1,240 people are injured and 1,320 houses are completely destroyed,” Rayan told The Associated Press.

The earthquake struck about 40 km from the western city of Herat at around 11:00 local time (06:30 GMT).

The World Health Organization in Afghanistan said it dispatched 12 ambulance cars to help evacuate those injured to hospitals, according to The Associated Press.  

“As deaths & casualties from the earthquake continue to be reported, teams are in hospitals assisting treatment of wounded & assessing additional needs,” the U.N. agency said on X, formerly called Twitter. “WHO-supported ambulances are transporting those affected, most of them women and children.”