The number of casualties from the devastating earthquakes that struck Afghanistan on Saturday has reportedly surged to over 45-hundred.

According to Spanish news agency EFE on Monday, Taliban officials produced the casualty estimate, with Afghanistan's Ministry for Disaster Management reportedly saying that about 24-hundred were killed and some two-thousand were wounded.

A spokesperson for the ministry said that 35 teams are conducting search operations, adding that the number of casualties will increase further.

On Saturday, two back-to-back six-point-three earthquakes struck Herat, western Afghanistan, followed by several powerful aftershocks.

Without support for rescue efforts, residents of the province are reportedly digging through the debris with their bare hands and shovels to pull out buried people.

Relief from the international community at large does not appear likely, with foreign aid to Afghanistan suspended upon the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, setting the country up for a serious humanitarian crisis.

Aid agencies and nongovernmental groups have appealed to the international community to come forward, but only a handful of countries, including Pakistan and China, have publicly offered support.

Seoul's foreign ministry expressed condolences for victims of the earthquake and their families in a statement on Monday, adding it hopes that the affected areas are swiftly restored.