KABUL, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the earthquake in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar and Nangarhar provinces has risen to 622, with 1,555 others injured, the country's Ministry of Interior Affairs said in a statement on Monday.
The death toll in Kunar has reached 610, with 1,300 people injured and numerous homes destroyed. In Nangarhar, 12 people have been killed, 255 injured, and dozens of houses damaged, according to the ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani.
Security, medical, transportation, food and support teams have intensified their efforts to deliver comprehensive and immediate aid to those affected by the disaster, said Qani.
Rescue teams from the Ministries of Defense, Interior, and Public Health arrived to airlift the injured to Nangarhar Regional Hospital, as reported by local media outlet TOLOnews.
A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck the eastern part of Afghanistan at 11:47 p.m. local time on Aug. 31, with its epicenter 27 km at a depth of eight km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.■
