At least 20 people were killed and 534 injured in a magnitude 6.3 earthquake that struck northern Afghanistan overnight Sunday to Monday, two months after the deadliest earthquake in the country's recent history.

The earthquake, which occurred shortly before 20:30 GMT in Kholm, in the province of Samangan, near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, had a depth of 28 km, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

"According to the information we have so far, 534 people have been injured and more than 20 martyrs have been transported to hospitals in the provinces of Samangan and Balkh," said Sharafat Zaman, spokesman for the Ministry of Health.

In Mazar-e-Sharif, a major city in the north of the country in the Balkh region, the Blue Mosque, a 15th-century jewel of brilliant faience tiles, was damaged: stones came loose, particularly at the minaret of this imposing building, one of the few tourist sites in the country, an AFP correspondent observed.

Journalists were not allowed to take pictures at that time.

The Ministry of Defence said it had cleared and reopened the main artery between Mazar-e-Sharif and Kholm, a road passing between two cliffs that had been cut off by landslides, and had rescued people who had been trapped there overnight.

But power still needs to be restored in several provinces after power lines from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were damaged, the state-owned electricity company Dabs said.

"Many houses have been destroyed and significant financial losses are to be reported," said Taliban government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat on X, adding that he had ordered "the competent authorities to distribute medical and food aid and rescue the victims."

Seismic zone

During the night, around 01:00 local time (20:30 GMT Sunday), tremors were felt as far away as the capital Kabul, hundreds of kilometers away, according to AFP journalists on the ground.

This earthquake comes after the magnitude 6 earthquake that struck the eastern provinces of Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar at the end of August.

Although less intense, it had nevertheless struck more mountainous and remote areas and had become the deadliest in Afghanistan's recent history: more than 2,200 people had been killed and nearly 4,000 others injured, according to Taliban authorities.

It was followed by numerous aftershocks and rescue efforts were slowed by landslides, rockfalls and the lack of passable roads.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 221,000 people are still in "acute need" of aid in the East and according to the World Bank, this August earthquake caused $183 million (€158 million) of damage to buildings and infrastructure.

Afghanistan is frequently struck by earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

Since 1900, the northeast of this country has experienced 12 earthquakes of a magnitude greater than 7, according to Brian Baptie, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey.

The Taliban, back in power since 2021, have already faced several earthquakes, including the one in the Herat region, on the border with Iran, in 2023, in which more than 1,500 people were killed and more than 63,000 homes destroyed.