Taliban* government officials reported the growing death toll on Sunday as volunteers in the country race against time to rescue survivors.
Scenes of devastation emerged from war torn Afghanistan Sunday as volunteers urged international organizations to provide assistance in rescuing survivors.
"The tragedy is very huge, we cannot define it to you in simple words," said one volunteer from Zenda Jan, a district in Herat province in Western Afghanistan. "People are still trapped in the debris, they are alive, but we cannot reach them."
One video shared on social media showed a young girl being pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building, stunned and caked in gray dust. Her mother was found grasping the girl’s hand, though it wasn’t clear if she survived.
In an interview international media, a Taliban spokesperson pleaded for food, medicine and tents to house survivors. It appeared that rescuers at the scene lacked professional training; volunteers called on international organizations to send trained rescue teams as Afghans buried under the wreckage tenuously cling to life.
Several aftershocks followed the quake, according to the United States Geological Survey, including magnitude 6.3, 5.9 and 5.5 tremors. Earlier estimates in the immediate aftermath of the event on Saturday had placed the death toll at over 100, but that number climbed rapidly as the country struggled to respond to the disaster.
"I am donating all of my [Cricket World Cup] match fees to help the affected people," said Afghan cricket player Rashid Khan on the X platform on Sunday. "Soon, we will be launching a fundraising campaign to call upon those who can support the people in need."
*The Taliban is a terrorist organization under UN sanctions.