The United States Geological Survey said the epicentre was 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of the region's largest city Herat, and was followed by seven aftershocks with magnitudes between 4.6 and 6.3.
Crowds of residents fled buildings in the city at around 11:00 am (0630 GMT) as the quakes began, lasting just under three hours.
"We were in our offices and suddenly the building started shaking," 45-year-old Herat resident Bashir Ahmad told AFP.
"Wall plasters started to fall down and the walls got cracks, some walls and parts of the building collapsed."
"I am not able to contact my family, network connections are disconnected. I am too worried and scared, it was horrifying," he said.
Men, women and children stood out in the wide streets, away from tall buildings, in the moments after the first quake and remained wary of returning to homes as aftershocks continued.
"The situation was very horrible, I have never experienced such a thing," said 21-year-old student Idrees Arsala, the last to safely evacuate his classroom as the quakes began.
In a video statement, National Disaster Management Authority spokesman Mullah Jan Sayeq said "around 40" had been injured in tremors felt across three provinces, in addition to 15 killed.
"These are the preliminary numbers. There is the possibility the numbers could increase," he said.
Earlier in the day he told AFP there had been landslides in nearby rural and mountainous areas.
Public health director of Herat province Mohammad Taleb Shahid put the fatality figure slightly lower at 14, with 78 injured, but agreed the tally would likely rise.
"We have information that people are buried under rubble," he told AFP.
- 'Significant casualties likely' -
Hundreds of fatalities were possible, according to a USGS preliminary report.
"Significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread. Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response," it said.
The USGS had earlier reported the first quake's magnitude as 6.2. It had a shallow depth of just 14 kilometres, it said.
Herat -- 120 kilometres east of the border with Iran -- is considered the cultural capital of Afghanistan.
It is the capital of Herat province which is home to an estimated population of 1.9 million, according to 2019 World Bank data.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
In June last year, more than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake -- the deadliest in Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century -- struck the impoverished province of Paktika.
In March of this year, 13 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by a magnitude 6.5 quake, which hit near Jurm in northeastern Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is already in the grip of a grinding humanitarian crisis, following the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Papua New Guinea
Port Moresby (AFP) Oct 7, 2023 -
A magnitude 6.7 earthquake rattled northeastern Papua New Guinea on Saturday, the United States Geological Survey said, disrupting power grids and plunging coastal communities into darkness.
The strong quake had a depth of 53 kilometres (33 miles) and hit at around 7:30 pm (0830 GMT) with the epicentre about 56 kilometres southeast of the coastal town of Madang, the USGS added.
An aftershock of equal magnitude hit off the coast of Madang minutes later, the USGS said, although no tsunami threat was detected by monitors.
The tremors were strong enough in Madang -- a settlement of about 27,000 people known for its scuba diving -- to knock some people off their feet.
Residents said the quake had taken out electricity and the extent of any damage would not be clear until first light on Sunday morning.
"We've had some of our staff falling down to the ground," a receptionist at the Madang Resort told AFP.
"The power just went down, we had to turn on the hotel generator. Tomorrow we will get the bigger picture."
Madang Lodge receptionist Jennifer Auto told AFP they had "experienced some damage" but so far "nothing bad".
The region was badly damaged by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck in September last year, causing more than 400 homes to collapse across the broader Madang province.
- Ring of fire -
Earthquakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on top of the seismic "Ring of Fire" -- an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
Although they seldom cause widespread damage in Papua New Guinea's sparsely populated jungle highlands, they can trigger destructive landslides.
At least seven people were killed in April this year when a 7.0-magnitude quake hit a jungle-clad area in the Pacific island nation's interior.
About 180 homes were destroyed in the heavily rainforested Karawari area, near the quake's epicentre.
In September last year, 10 people were killed when a 7.6-magnitude earthquake levelled hundreds of homes, split roads and caused power outages across the rugged north of the country.
It was the largest quake to rock Papua New Guinea since 2018, when almost 150 people were killed following a shallow 7.5-magnitude tremor in Hela province.
Many of Papua New Guinea's nine million citizens live outside major towns and cities, where the difficult terrain and lack of sealed roads can seriously hamstring search-and-rescue efforts.
Magnitude 6.0 quake hits Mexico
Mexico City (AFP) Oct 7, 2023 -
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca on Friday night, causing some damage and power outages, officials said.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the National Seismological Service said the epicenter of the quake was in the town of Matias Romero.
Senior regional government official Jesus Romero told journalists no deaths had been reported but the tremor caused damage to stretches of a highway leading to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a narrow stretch of Mexican territory that separates the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans.
Damage was also reported in the city of Oaxaca, where a hospital suffered cracked walls and power outages were reported.
A seismic alarm was activated in Mexico City more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) away, where dozens of people evacuated their homes.
The mayor of the capital, home to 9.2 million people, Marti Batres, said on X that "a slight tremor was felt" in the city, adding that "no damage has been reported so far."
Mexico sits in the world's most seismically and volcanically active zone, known as the Ring of Fire, where the Pacific plate meets surrounding tectonic plates.
In September 2017, a 7.1-magnitude quake killed 369 people, the majority in Mexico City. And an 8.1-magnitude quake killed about 10,000 people in 1985.
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