* Quakes two hours apart hit four villages in Nangarhar province, killing up to 22 people, destroying 200 homes

SHERZAD/BHEZAD KHEIL: Two earthquakes killed up to 22 people in eastern Afghanistan, damaging villages and destroying scores of homes in a remote area near its border with Pakistan, local authorities said on Friday.

The quakes hit four villages overnight in Khogyani and Sherzad districts in Nangarhar province, where police searched for bodies and the injured under the rubble of flattened homes.

“Twenty-two people have been killed and 30 injured. More than 200 homes have been destroyed,” Khogyani district chief Haji Said Rahman said.

Shafiqullah from the village of Bhezad Kheil said 21 people were buried in a cemetery, including two of his young neighbours, AP reported. Nijad, 10, and Sima, 7, both died after the roof above their second-story bedroom collapsed, he said.

“There were two shakes,” said Shafiqullah, 30. “The first shake was very strong, when everyone was asleep. The first shake destroyed everything. Then the crying and the shouting started.”

The 5.5- and 5.1-magnitude tremors that struck two hours apart at shallow depths, had caused simple mud-brick homes to collapse with ease, said a source.

At one house, only a wall with a prayer mat hanging on it was left standing and several dead cows and sheep lay motionless in the rubble.

“Some people came out of their houses after the first tremor,” said resident Yar Muhammad, 30, adding they went back inside to help other people get out.

“But there came another strong tremor and the houses fell down on the people,” he added, as helicopters surveying the damage roared overhead.

Funerals for three women and six children also began Friday afternoon.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai conveyed his condolences to local officials and tribal elders in the region, and ordered authorities to provide emergency aid as quickly as possible to the victims.

“The work is going on and the rubble is being removed to try to find more dead bodies or injured people,” Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashari said.

A US military provincial reconstruction team (PRT) based in Jalalabad, the provincial capital, also provided emergency assistance while ambulances from the Afghan Red Crescent Society helped ferry the wounded from the remote earthquake site, reachable only after hours by road.

The US Geological Survey said the 5.5-magnitude quake, at a shallow depth of eight kilometres, struck at 1:57am Afghan time, 85 kilometres southeast of Kabul. It was followed just over two hours later by the 5.1-magnitude aftershock at a depth of just three kilometres, according to the US agency. agencies

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