Deadly quake rocks Afghanistan leaving iconic Blue Mosque surrounded by rubble

(CNN) — A powerful earthquake has rattled northern Afghanistan, killing more than a dozen people, injuring hundreds and damaging one the country’s most beautiful mosques.

Families were jolted awake in the early hours of Monday when the 6.3-magnitude quake struck near Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the most populated cities in the north of the country, at a shallow depth of 28 kilometers (17.4 miles), the United States Geological Survey said.

A massive search and rescue operation is underway, with a child seen pulled alive from the rubble in the north of the country in video released by the Ministry of Defense on Monday morning. The girl was taken to hospital in a critical condition, a spokesperson for the 209 Al-Fath Army Corp told CNN.

Mazar-i-Sharif’s iconic Blue Mosque was damaged in t