Second quake of the day in western Afghanistan amid rescue operations

A 4.7-magnitude earthquake shook western Afghanistan for the second time on Monday amid rescue operations for victims of Saturday's earthquake and aftershocks, which left more than 2,400 people dead and some 2,000 injured. 

The 4.7-magnitude quake was reported 30 kilometres southeast of the village of Qarabagh in the 10-kilometre-deep Gulran district of Herat province in western Afghanistan, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). 

This is the second quake reported in the province, albeit in separate districts, preceded by a 4.9-magnitude quake reported early Monday morning. 

This while hundreds of volunteers are searching, with shovels and even by hand, for survivors or the lifeless bodies of those missing after the series of earthquakes of up to 6.3 magnitude that shook this same province last Saturday. 

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), some 516 people are missing. 

The country is overwhelmed with overcrowded hospitals and insufficient resources to care for the victims, while waiting for nations and international organisations to respond to the emergency appeal. 

So far only a few countries, including Iran, Pakistan and China, have offered humanitarian aid in the form of essential medicines and food, even though the country urgently needs technology and specialised rescue teams for operations. 

"The situation is not normal, fear is reflected in people's faces, people spent the night outdoors, the hospital is facing an overload of injured and services are not enough," Ghulam Yahya, a resident of Herat who witnessed the first tremor this morning, told EFE. 

Afghanistan felt at least seven tremors on 7 October. The first and fourth, the highest magnitudes, were 6.3 and occurred in the Zindah Jan district of Herat, according to the USGS. 

It is one of the worst and deadliest earthquakes recorded in the country in recent decades.