Hello and welcome to NewsHour live from the BBC World Service in London.
I'm Rebecca Kesby and we begin the programme today in Afghanistan where there are fears that the number of those killed in the earthquake that struck late last night could rise as rescuers struggle to get to remote areas.
At least 800 people are known to have been killed and at least 3,000 injured mostly in the Kunar province in the east of the country close to the Pakistan border.
border.
But the magnitude six earthquake was fairly shallow and it's thought entire villages may have been destroyed in some mountainous communities.
Earthquakes are not uncommon in Afghanistan because the country lies on tectonic plates,
but it's the third major quake to hit the country since the Taliban retook control in 2021.
And we can hear from eyewitnesses to the disaster now.
This is Sayyid Rahim from...
Afghanistan province, Kunar.
I saw some injuries and dead bodies.
A lot of houses are destroyed.
I prepared my emergency teams for responding for the treatment, for the helping of the people.
They are very afraid and they are destroyed.
And they lose the parents, the children, the wives.
Many mountain roads are impassable due to landslides and there have been desperate efforts to get helicopters into the air to collect the injured.
This local resident described the devastation in the Nergal district of Kunar province.
Nearly 95% of our village is destroyed.
We have many martyred and wounded people.
In every household, 5 to 10 people are injured.