At least 12 persons, including eight of one family, killed in Afghan quake

Mohibullah Niazi, a neighbour who helped in the rescue efforts, said on Saturday (April 4, 2026) that the eight people killed on the outskirts of Kabul after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck northern Afghanistan the previous night were a refugee family recently returned from neighbouring Iran.

There was only one survivor: a boy of around 3 years old, who was injured and has been hospitalised in Kabul.

Afghanistan’s Deputy Government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat on Saturday (April 4, 2026) increased the overall death toll from the quake to 12, with another four people injured.

Mr. Fitrat said five homes were destroyed and another 33 significantly damaged, affecting 40 families in the provinces of Kabul, Panjshir, Logar, Nangarhar, Laghman and Nuristan.

The Afghanistan Disaster Management Authority put the overall death toll at nine. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

The family near Kabul were among the millions of Afghan refugees who have recently returned from Iran and Pakistan after both countries launched crackdowns in 2023 on foreigners — particularly Afghans — living in their countries.

Heavy rains over the past several days, which have led to deadly floods in many parts of Afghanistan, had left the ground sodden and soft. When the earthquake struck, the wall collapsed on the family.

“My daughter shouted to me that a wall had fallen on them. The whole family ran, but there were so many big rocks,” Niazi recounted on Saturday as he stood at the scene. “We tried our best.” On Saturday morning, piles of bricks and mud were all that were left, along with blankets, cooking utensils and other personal belongings that were salvaged from the rubble and set into a pile.

“For about three minutes, I could hear the voices of these people,” Niazi said. “But we couldn’t do anything. There were two or three of us, but this was not the work of three people.” Neighbours soon rushed to help, digging through the mud and rubble with spades and their hands. They alerted the local Taliban police checkpoint, which sent rescuers and ambulances.