At least 2,000 people died A series of earthquakes hit Afghanistan’s northwestern Herat province on Saturday, a Taliban official confirmed, in what has become one of the worst such disasters to hit the Central Asian country in the last two decades.

Late Saturday night, Taliban chief spokesman Zabiulah Mujahid advocated implementation widespread deployment of rescue troops in emergency situations to mitigate the consequences of a chain of earthquakes.

An estimated 4,200 people were affected, including 600 families. According to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the earthquake destroyed 400 houses, with the village of Mahal Vadaka being the worst hit.

A chain of at least seven pre-magnitude earthquakes between 5.5 and 6.3, recorded in the province within a radius of approximately 50 kilometers. and this was especially felt in the city of Zendejan, a city of about 10,000 people located in the valley of the Hari Rud River.

All the earthquakes shook the region in just one hour. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The two most notable earthquakes are magnitude 6.3. They occurred approximately 33 kilometers northeast of this location, with the hypocenter located at depths of 14 and 10 kilometers, respectively. We must add a third earthquake of magnitude 5.5 29 kilometers from the city.

The fourth and final earthquake was magnitude 5.9. It was recorded 35 kilometers from the city of Herat.with a hypocenter at an altitude of 7.7 km.

Afghanistan is among the countries most prone to natural disasterslocated in the Hindu Kush mountain range, a point of great seismic activity and a common point of origin for telluric movements in the region.

In addition, it has very vulnerable population, mostly poorApart from the lack of sufficient infrastructure to deal with natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes.

(according to information from Europe Press and EFE)