An earthquake in northeastern Afghanistan killed at least eight people early Monday, and the toll could rise, the state news agency quoted a regional official as saying.

The quake of magnitude 5.3 struck near the eastern city of Jalalabad in the early hours, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

"Sunday night's earthquake has caused financial and human losses in Kunar province," Mawlavi Najibullah Hanif, the spokesperson for the provincial governor, told the Bakhtar News Agency, adding that casualties could rise.

Initial reports put the toll from the quake at six, with nine injured, said disaster ministry spokesperson Mohammad Nassim Haqqani.

Afghanistan is still recovering from the country's deadliest earthquake in over two decades that killed more than 1,000 in June and wiped out villages in its east.

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.

On June 22, the country's deadliest earthquake in over two decades – of magnitude 5.9 – killed more than 1,000 people and injured thousands.

In 2015, about 380 people were killed in Pakistan and Afghanistan when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake ripped across the two countries.

In recent months Afghanistan has also been hit by flash floods that have killed about 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

Such disasters pose a huge logistical challenge for Afghanistan's globally unrecognized Taliban government, which has isolated itself from much of the world.