Earthquake toll rises to 1,457

Rescue workers battled to pull bodies from the rubble of homes razed in Afghanistan’s earthquakes this week, as time runs out for survivors, who face a bleak future with global aid agencies warning of dwindling funds for food, shelter and medicines.

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Search operations ran late into Wednesday in the quake-hit mountainous eastern areas as more bodies were dug out, the Taliban administration said, adding that the death toll had crossed 1,457 but exact numbers had yet to be compiled.

“Everything we had has been destroyed,” said Aalem Jan, a survivor in the worst affected province of Kunar.

“Our house collapsed, and all our belongings and possessions were lost. The only remaining things are these clothes on our backs.”

The first earthquake of magnitude 6, one of Afghanistan's deadliest in recent years, unleashed widespread damage and destruction in the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar on Sunday, when it struck at a shallow depth of 10 km.