A young man died Wednesday morning while donating blood for victims of the recent earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, local sources said.
The man, a resident of Nangarhar province, died around 8 a.m. in the provincial hospital in Jalalabad, the sources said. Doctors have not confirmed the cause of death, but the sources said he may have died from low blood pressure after giving too much blood.
The powerful 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck late Sunday near Asadabad, the capital of Kunar province, at a depth of about 27 kilometers (17 miles). Taliban officials said the death toll has climbed to 1,411, with 3,124 injured and more than 5,400 homes destroyed.
While Kunar has borne the brunt of casualties, smaller numbers were reported in Nangarhar, Laghman and Nuristan provinces. Officials said Panjshir province sustained financial losses but no deaths.
Hospitals in Kunar remain overwhelmed, and some of the wounded have been transferred to Jalalabad. Witnesses reported mass burials, while families said children left homeless by the disaster were forced to spend the night outdoors. Taliban officials said helicopters were being used to evacuate survivors from remote areas.
The quake was felt in Kabul and across the border in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
