Rescue workers on Monday scrambled to pull out survivors, and the dead, from beneath the rubble two days after the northwestern city of Herat and its surroundings were struck by the deadliest earthquakes to rattle Afghanistan in years.
The Taliban administration said at least 2,400 people were killed and many more injured in the quakes, which were among the world's deadliest this year after tremors in Turkey and Syria, in which an estimated 50,000 people were killed.
Many buildings in Herat city were relatively unaffected, but the mediaeval minarets of its famous mosques sustained some damage, photographs on social media showed. In a statement late on Sunday, the U.N. Humanitarian Office put the death toll from the quakes at 1,023, with an additional 1,663 people injured, and more than 500 missing. It said all the homes in the Zindajan district in Herat were destroyed.
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