Child death toll in Afghanistan quake rises to 155

Afghan child sits in a courtyard of their destroyed home after an earthquake in Gayan district in Paktika province (AP)

The death toll of children alone in last week’s devastating earthquake in south-eastern Afghanistan has risen to at least 155, the United Nations said.

The UN’s humanitarian coordination organisation, OCHA, said that another 250 children were injured in the magnitude 6 tremor that struck the mountainous villages in the Paktika and Khost provinces near the country’s border with Pakistan last week, flattening homes and triggering landslides.