The disaster will further stretch the resources of the South Asian nation already grappling with humanitarian crises, from a sharp drop in aid to a huge pushback of its citizens from neighbouring countries.
The quake of magnitude 6 injured more than 1500, the Taliban-run Afghan interior ministry said in a statement that put the death toll at 622.Â
Earlier, state-run broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) put the toll at about 500.
The quake late on Sunday hit towns in the province of Kunar, near the city of Jalalabad in neighbouring Nangarhar province, destroying numerous villages and causing extensive damage.
In Kabul, the capital, health authorities said rescuers were racing to reach remote hamlets dotting an area with a long history of earthquakes and floods.
"Figures from just a few clinics show over 400 injured and dozens of fatalities," ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman said in a statement on Monday that warned of higher casualties.
Images from Reuters Television showed helicopters ferrying out the affected, while residents helped soldiers and medics carry the wounded to ambulances.
Three villages were razed in the province of Kunar, with substantial damage in many others, the health ministry said.
Reports showed 250 dead and 500 injured, said Najibullah Hanif, the provincial information head of Kunar, adding that the tally could change.
Early reports showed 30 dead in a single village, with hundreds of injured taken to hospital, authorities said.
Rescuers were scrambling to find survivors in the area bordering Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, where homes of mud and stone were levelled by the midnight quake which hit at a depth of 10 kilometres.
"So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work," a foreign office spokesperson said.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Afghanistan on October 7, 2023, followed by strong aftershocks. The Taliban government estimated at least 4000 people perished.
The UN gave a far lower death toll of about 1500. It was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory.
With AP
