A day after the earthquakes, at least three bodies have been recovered in Burka district, the worst-hit area in the province of Baghlan, but between 50 and 70 people are thought still to be trapped, authorities say.

"They might be dead as there is a lot of soil and removing this is very, very hard," said provincial governor Munishi Abdul Majeed.

"We have sent excavators to the area but I don't think they will be able to do much as there is a lot of soil."

Rescuers are struggling to free those trapped and more teams have been sent from Kabul to the disaster-hit village of Mullah Jan, Mohammad Nasir Kohzad, the head of the local natural disaster response team, told AFP.

So far six people have been rescued with injuries, he added.

Two shallow quakes hit the region in the Hindu Kush mountains within half an hour on Monday, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The first, with a magnitude of 5.4, struck at 9:32 am (0502 GMT) at a depth of 15 kilometres (9 miles) with the epicentre around 160 kilometres southwest of the town of Faizabad.

A more powerful tremor, measured at 5.7 magnitude, hit around 25 minutes later in almost exactly the same place, USGS said.

Buildings were felt shaking slightly in Kabul, around 170 kilometres to the south, during both quakes.