A series of earthquakes in Afghanistan on Saturday left hundreds feared dead, with some sources saying the death toll could be as high as 320. A Taliban minister later said the toll had crossed 2,000.

Although new reports put the number of deaths around 100, it was the United Nations who initially floated the 320 figure before saying it was not verified.

British publication The Guardian quoted an unnamed Taliban official to say that the real number of deaths was mich higher.

The earthquake’s eipicenter was 40km away from Herat, the largest city in western Afghanistan with a magnitude of 5.9 followed by upto eight after shocks of magnitudes between 4.3 and 6.3. The earthquakes occurred early on Saturday around 11 am.

Videos from the aftermath of the earthquakes showed massive destruction, with entire buildings reduced completely to rubble. The Guardian quoted a local governor to say that atleast 10 villages had been flattened.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

In June last year, more than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake – the deadliest in Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century – struck the impoverished province of Paktika.

In March of this year, 13 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by a magnitude 6.5 quake, which hit near Jurm in northeastern Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is already in the grip of a grinding humanitarian crisis, following the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.