Earthquake hits Afghanistan: Ready to provide all possible disaster relief material, says Narendra Modi

Modi also expressed his sadness over the loss of lives caused due to the tremor.

"Deeply saddened at the news of the devastating earthquake in Afghanistan today. My deepest condolences on loss of precious lives," Modi tweeted.

"India stands by the people of Afghanistan in their difficult times and is ready to provide all possible disaster relief material at the earliest," he said.

The death toll in a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that rocked Afghanistan's eastern parts last night has jumped to 1,000, media reports said.

It is the deadliest earthquake to hit Afghanistan in the last 20 years.

The earthquake struck about 44km (27 miles) from the south-eastern city of Khost shortly after 01:30 local time (21:00 Tuesday GMT), when many people were asleep at home, BBC reported.

Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada confirmed that hundreds of houses were destroyed and the death toll was expected to rise.

The head of information for Paktika province, Mohammad Amin Hazifi said that 1,000 people had died and 1,500 more were injured,  the BBC report stated.