5.2 Earthquake Hits Afghanistan Less Than 48 Hours After 1,400 Died In Quake

The epicentre of the tremor was close to where a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit late Sunday night, devastating remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan.

The "quake was felt in the same areas which were affected in Kunar (province) in the first earthquake," Ehsanullah Ehsan, the disaster management spokesman in the hard-hit province, told AFP.

"These aftershocks are constant, but they have not caused any casualties yet."

The quake was reported by the US Geological Survey late Tuesday.

The number of victims from Sunday's earthquake has mounted steadily, with 1,411 people dead and 3,124 injured in Kunar alone, chief Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday, making it one of the deadliest to hit the country in decades.

Another dozen people were killed and hundreds injured in neighbouring Nangarhar province.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, with dwindling aid since the Taliban seized power in 2021 undermining its ability to respond to disasters.

The devastation could affect "hundreds of thousands", said United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan Indrika Ratwatte.

Rescuers searched through the night and all day for survivors in the rubble of homes flattened in Kunar, where more than 5,400 houses were destroyed, government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said on X.