(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) –At least 11 people have been killed and hundreds injured after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit areas across Afghanistan and Pakistan, with tremors felt as far as the Indian capital New Delhi, Aljazeera reported.
The earthquake’s epicentre was 40km (25 miles) south-southeast of the Afghan town of Jurm, near the borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said on Tuesday.
Separately, Pakistan’s Meteorological Department put the magnitude slightly higher at 6.8, and later reported a 3.7 aftershock in the Hindu Kush region along the country’s border with Afghanistan.
Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Rescue 1122 service in the northwest of the country, and other officials told the Associated Press news agency that nine people were killed when roofs collapsed in various parts of northwestern Pakistan.
“A 10-year-old girl in Swat, and a 24-year old man in Lower Dir died when the walls of their [respective] houses collapsed,” Faizi told Al Jazeera.
According to Faizi, landslides have caused damage in Swat district, 180km (112 miles) northwest of the capital Islamabad.
“More than 20 buildings have suffered damages due to the jolts, and scores of people have been injured,” he said.
Hospitals in the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province treated at least 250 patients, of whom 15 suffered minor injuries and more than 200 were unconscious. Fifty-two people were injured in other parts of the province, officials said.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked the country’s disaster management officials to remain vigilant in the aftermath of the earthquake.
In Afghanistan, Sharafat Zaman Amar, the Taliban’s appointed spokesman for the public health ministry, told the Associated Press that so far at least two people were reported killed and around 20 others were injured in the earthquake.
“Unfortunately, there could be more casualties as the quake was so powerful, in most parts of the country,” Zaman Amar told the AP.
- Tremors felt in Kabul
The tremor was felt in the Afghan capital, Kabul, as well as a number of Pakistani cities, including Islamabad and Lahore.
Sarah Hasan, a resident of Islamabad, told Al Jazeera that the walls of her house vibrated as the earthquake hit the Pakistani capital.
“It started off slowly and then became strong,” the 43-year-old said.
“The house was vibrating, things were shaking. It started slowing down, and after a few minutes, it felt like everything is calm again.”
Witnesses also reported feeling the shaking in Indian-administered Kashmir. There, people rushed out of their homes in fear as they recalled two devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syrian last month, killing more than 50,000 people.
“We were sitting in our home when we saw everything around us shaking. Initially, it was not very powerful, but when we rushed outside we saw everyone in the street crying,” Muhammad Yasin, a resident of the main city of Srinagar, told Al Jazeera.
“The images of the devastation from Turkey and Syria are still fresh [in our eyes]. For a moment, we felt it is the end of our world,” he said.
More than 1,000 people were killed last year after a magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan. (AL JAZEERA)
