Paktika’s provincial health director said they are desperate for humanitarian aid to assist survivors of Wednesday’s deadly 6.1 magnitude earthquake.

Afghan Voice Agency(AVA)_Monitoring, Speaking to a team from Ariana News, Esmat said so far at least 3,000 families in Paktika alone are in need of urgent shelter, food and drinking water.

He said “hundreds of families have been killed,” but said the final death toll is not yet known as victims in remote areas have not been brought to the hospital. He said survivors in these remote areas were immediately burying the victims.

The official death toll has however been put at almost 1,000 but officials have said this tally is expected to rise.

The earthquake struck just before 2am on Wednesday morning, when most people were asleep. Thousands of village houses collapsed, resulting in the high casualty toll.