More than 90% of people killed by western Afghanistan quake were women and children, UN says
U.N. officials say more than 90% of the people killed by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in western Afghanistan were women and children
ISLAMABAD (AP) — More than 90% of the people killed by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in western Afghanistan last weekend were women and children, U.N. officials reported Thursday.
Taliban officials said Saturday's earthquake killed more than 2,000 people of all ages and genders across Herat province. The epicenter was in Zenda Jan district, where 1,294 people died, 1,688 were injured and every home was destroyed, according to U.N. figures.
Women and children were more likely to have been at home when the quake struck in the morning, said Siddig Ibrahim, the chief of the UNICEF field office in Herat, said. “When the first earthquake hit, people thought it was an explosion, and they ran into their homes,” he said.
Hundreds of people, mostly women, remain missing in Zenda Jan.
