More than 2400 people are dead after entire villages were flattened by earthquakes in Afghanistan, the Taliban administration says, in the worst tremors to rock the quake-prone mountainous country in years.

One of the quakes on Saturday (local time) in the west of the country was a 6.3 magnitude, the US Geological Survey said.

They were among the world’s deadliest quakes this year, after tremors in Turkey and Syria together killed an estimated 50,000 in February.

The rescue effort has been hampered by decades of war leaving infrastructure in a shambles.

Afghanistan’s healthcare system, reliant almost entirely on foreign aid, has faced crippling cuts in the two years since the Taliban took over and much international assistance, which had formed the backbone of the economy, was halted.

Diplomats and aid officials say concerns over Taliban restrictions on women and competing global humanitarian crises are causing donors to pull back on financial support.

Not much remains of mud homes after the earthquakes in Siah Ab village. Photo: Getty

The Islamist government has ordered most Afghan female aid staff not to work, although with exemptions in health and education.

In August, a representative for the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was likely to end its financial support for 25 Afghan hospitals because of funding constraints.

It was not immediately clear if the Herat hospital nearest the disaster area was on that list.

Ten rescue teams are in the area which borders Iran, Janan Sayeeq, spokesman for the Ministry of Disasters, told a press conference.

Food, drinking water, medicine, clothes and tents are urgently needed for rescue and relief, Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban political office in Qatar, said in a message to the media.

The mediaeval minarets of Herat sustained some damage, photographs on social media showed, with cracks visible and tiles fallen off.

Hemmed in by mountains, Afghanistan has a history of strong earthquakes, many in the rugged Hindu Kush region bordering Pakistan.

The quakes triggered panic in Herat, resident Naseema said.

“People left their houses, we all are on the streets,” she wrote in a text message to Reuters on Saturday, adding that the city was feeling aftershocks.

There are a total of 202 public health facilities in Herat province, one of which is the major regional hospital where 500 casualties had been taken, the World Health Organisation said in a report on Sunday.

A vast majority of the facilities are smaller basic health centres and logistical challenges were hindering operations, particularly in remote areas, the WHO said.

“While search and rescue operations remain ongoing, casualties in these areas have not yet been fully identified,” it said.

-AAP