Afghanistan Quake Kills Over 2,200, Deadliest in Decades

The vast majority of those killed in the magnitude-6.0 earthquake that jolted the mountainous region bordering Pakistan late Sunday were in Kunar province, where 2,205 people died and 3,640 were injured, with a dozen deaths and hundreds of injuries in neighbouring provinces Nangarhar and Laghman.

Access to the hardest hit areas was stymied by already poor roads blocked by landslides and rockfall that continued as the area was convulsed by strong aftershocks.

On Thursday night, a shallow 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit near the epicentre of Sunday's temblor near Jalalabad city in Nangarhar, shaking buildings as far away as Kabul and the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

It was the seventh strong aftershock recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey, plunging survivors repeatedly into fear.

"A rolling wave of aftershocks in eastern Afghanistan is terrifying children who have lost families and homes in the country's deadliest earthquake in nearly 30 years," said non-governmental organisation Save the Children.