Original title: ‘Covered in dust and too shocked to speak’: Daylight reveals scale of Afghanistan quake’s devastation
‘Covered in dust and too shocked to speak’: Daylight reveals scale of Afghanistan quake’s devastation 35 minutes ago Share Save Gabriela Pomeroy BBC News Share Save Matiullah Shahab Matiullah Shahab helped dig graves in the village of Andarlachak Tangi, which was among those hit by Sunday’s earthquake Just before midnight on Sunday, Matiullah Shahab woke up to find his house in Afghanistan’s remote Kunar province shaking. An earthquake measuring 6.0 magnitude had struck eastern Afghanistan, leaving at least 800 people dead, according to the UN. Even though the epicentre of the quake was 16km away, the whole of Shahab’s village of Asadabad trembled. The 23 family members who live with him ran out of their bedrooms as they feared the walls would fall in on them, and stayed awake all night in their garden. “We were all afraid,” he says. The areas worst hit by the quake were Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, but it was felt as far away as Kabul and in neighbouring Pakistan’s capital Islamabad