NAHRIN (Afghanistan) March 28: International aid has begun reaching thousands of homeless and hungry families in isolated Afghan villages devastated by a deadly earthquake, UN officials said Thursday.

The final death toll from the earthquake that struck on Monday evening measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale is still unclear, but UN officials are working with a figure of up to 800, cautioning that it could change as searches continue.

Afghan officials have said up to 3,000 people may have died in the quake in the remote northern farming districts of Nahrin and Burka at the edge of the Hindu Kush mountain range.

As Afghanistan officially marked a day of mourning, UN humanitarian coordinator’s office spokeswomen Stephanie Bunker said indications from some of the villages reached for the first time was that the death toll might not be as high as initially feared.

“From what we know now the original estimates were too high and we hope that will remain the case,” she said, later adding that UN workers put the current known toll at “between 700 to 800.”

Deputy UN special envoy to Afghanistan Nigel Fisher said Wednesday that 600 people had been buried and 200 were awaiting burial.

Flags were flying at half-mast Thursday to mourn the dead as the emergency aid effort shifted from rescue to relief, prioritising aid for the living in the form of blankets, tents, food and medicine.

As many as 100,000 people were affected after some 1,500 buildings were destroyed or badly damaged in the already impoverished rural area, according to the UN.

“In a radius of 15 kilometres there is 90 percent structural damage to houses,” said UN spokeswoman in Kabul, Rebecca Vetharanian Richards.

In Nahrin, Bunker said 9,000 families had received blankets and tents as relief efforts picked up in the afternoon Thursday and the World Food Program has begun distributing food.

“They have already done 5,000 families...Tomorrow (Friday) they will start all over again,” Bunker said.

Some 20,000 families were in need of assistance, she said.

“Eighty percent of families (in the Burka and Nahrin districts) do need some kind of assistance,” Bunker said.

But “immediate needs” had been covered by in-country stocks, Richards said.

Most of the buildings that collapsed in remote villages were single-storey.—AFP