Original title: ‘Covered in dust and too shocked to speak’: Afghan villagers reel at scale of quake’s devastation
‘Covered in dust and too shocked to speak’: Afghan villagers reel at scale of quake’s devastation 11 hours ago Share Save Gabriela Pomeroy BBC News Share Save Watch: Buildings destroyed and rescue efforts under way after deadly Afghanistan 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 (10 miles) 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. When day broke, Matiullah - who is a f