Rescue efforts wind down in quake-hit Afghanistan as villages bury dead

People search for survivors amid the debris of a house that was destroyed by an earthquake in the district of Zinda Jan, in Herat, Afghanistan October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Ali Khara

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) -Rescuers on Tuesday scaled back operations in Afghanistan's devastated northwest as chances of finding survivors diminished 72 hours after one of the world's deadliest earthquakes, while villagers in the area held mass funerals for their dead.

At least 2,400 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured, the Taliban-run government said, in the multiple earthquakes that struck northwest of the city of Herat, levelling thousands of homes. Most of the casualties were women and children, the World Health Organisation said.