HERAT: 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook western Afghanistan on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said, wracking the same region where more than 1,000 people were killed in tremors last week.

The quake hit just after 8am with an epicentre 33 kilometres northwest of Herat city, the capital of the same-named western province, the USGS said.

A magnitude 5.5 aftershock followed 20 minutes later.

National disaster management officials said they were still investigating the scale of destruction.

A reporter in Herat city said most residents were still sleeping outside a week after the start of a series of quakes in the region, fearful of aftershocks pulling down their homes in the night.

But some had begun sleeping inside again.

Another magnitude 6.3 quake and eight powerful aftershocks jolted the same part of Herat on October 7, toppling swathes of rural homes.

The Taliban government said more than 1,000 people were killed in last week’s tremors, while the World Health Organization (WHO) put the figure at nearly 1,400 late Saturday.

Another tremor of the same intensity killed one person and injured 130 others days after the initial quakes, as thousands of terrified residents were left without shelter and volunteers dug for survivors.

The quakes were followed by dust storms which damaged the tents survivors were living in.

The WHO says nearly 20,000 people have been affected by the string of disasters, with women and children making up most of the fatalities.

Thousands of residents are now living around the ruins of homes where entire families were wiped out in an instant.

Earthquakes are frequent in western and central Afghanistan and are mostly caused by the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates jutting against each other.