KABUL, March 26 (News Agencies) - Up to 4,800 people are feared dead after a devastating earthquake wiped out a remote rural town in northern Afghanistan overnight, Afghan officials said Tuesday, news agencies reported.

The U.N. said Tuesday, March 26, that local estimates for the number of people killed in an overnight earthquake in northern Afghanistan ranged from 1,500 to 4,800, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Elizabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said local Afghan officials put the death toll at 1,500. She said unconfirmed estimates from the office of interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai spoke of 4,800 people dead.

Afghan Minister for Water and Natural Resources Haji Mangal Hussain told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) that more than 1,800 people had been killed in and around Nahrin, in Baghlan province, and the toll could rise.

"The earthquake caused devastation in the eastern parts of Baghlan province, particularly in Nahrin district," Hussain said. "According to initial reports, the earthquake left more than 1,800 people dead."

As reports continue to roll in from the isolated mountainous region, the United Nations, foreign relief agencies and the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul were meeting to plan emergency rescue efforts.

Another strong earthquake rocked Kabul March 3.

French non-governmental organisation ACTED chief of mission Sebastien Prives told AFP at least 1,200 had died and 1,500 had been injured. "All the town has been destroyed," he said.

Afghan defense ministry spokesman Mira Jan said 600 bodies had already been recovered from Nahrin, some 175 kilometers (109 miles) north of Kabul.

The quake measured 6.0 on the Richter scale and was centered in the Hindu Kush mountains around 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the Afghan capital, according to seismological officials in neighboring Pakistan.

It struck around 7:30 p.m. (1500 GMT Monday) and severe aftershocks measuring between 4.0 and 5.2 on the Richter scale were continuing Tuesday morning, they said.

Meanwhile, Karzai postponed Tuesday his planned visit to Turkey following the earthquake, a report said.

Karzai presided over a cabinet meeting early Tuesday and decided to postpone the trip scheduled for Wednesday, March 27, because of the apparent severity of the quake, in which more than 1,800 people are feared to have been killed in northern Baghlan province.

Haji Mangal Hussain told AIP that a new date for the trip would be announced soon.