The 5.9 magnitude earthquake was felt most strongly in the east, near Pakistan, and the death toll is anticipated to grow when rescuers reach distant areas. People already live in poverty in a nation wracked by a humanitarian calamity exacerbated by the Taliban takeover in August.

“The number of those martyred in the earthquake is more than 100,” government spokesman Bilal Karimi told AFP.

“Many houses were damaged and people trapped inside,” he said.

Photographs and video footage shared on social media revealed severely damaged mud buildings in distant rural regions.

Locals were seen putting victims into a helicopters in some footage. Earthquakes occur mostly in Afghanistan, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which is located at the meeting of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. Hundreds of structures were destroyed and scores of people were killed and injured in January when two earthquakes hit rural communities in the western province of Badghis.