ISLAMABAD: A magnitude 6.5 earthquake rattled much of Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday, sending panicked residents fleeing from their homes and frightening people even in remote villages. Twelve people were injured in northwest Pakistan in the quake, which was centered in Afghanistan and also felt in bordering Tajikistan. The tremors were so powerful that many people fled their homes and offices in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad. The scene was repeated in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan. “The quake was so strong and terrifying, we thought houses are collapsing on us, people were all shouting and were shocked,” said Shafiullah Azimi, a Kabul resident.
The US Geological Survey said the centre of the magnitude 6.5 quake was located 40 kilometres south-southeast of Jurm in Afghanistan’s mountainous Hindukush region, bordering Pakistan and Tajikistan.
A 13-year old girl died when a wall in her home collapsed on her, and 34 people were injured in the northern Pakistani district of Swat, police officer Shafiullah Gandapur said. Rakhshinda Tauseed, a physician, said she was at her hospital in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore when the earthquake hit.
“I quickly asked patients to go move to a safer place,” she said. Khurram Shahzad, a resident in Pakistan’s garrison city of Rawalpindi, said he was having dinner with his family at a restaurant when the walls started swaying.
“I quickly thought that it is a big one, and we left the restaurant and came out,” he said, and saw hundreds of people standing on the streets. The situation was similar in Peshawar where people were seen standing outside their homes and offices. In Afghanistan, Zabihullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the Taliban government, tweeted that the ministry of public health had ordered all health centres to be on standby.
Shaking was felt over an area 1,000 kilometres wide by approximately 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, according to the EMSC.
The US Geological Survey said the centre of the magnitude 6.5 quake was located 40 kilometres south-southeast of Jurm in Afghanistan’s mountainous Hindukush region, bordering Pakistan and Tajikistan.
A 13-year old girl died when a wall in her home collapsed on her, and 34 people were injured in the northern Pakistani district of Swat, police officer Shafiullah Gandapur said. Rakhshinda Tauseed, a physician, said she was at her hospital in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore when the earthquake hit.
“I quickly asked patients to go move to a safer place,” she said. Khurram Shahzad, a resident in Pakistan’s garrison city of Rawalpindi, said he was having dinner with his family at a restaurant when the walls started swaying.
“I quickly thought that it is a big one, and we left the restaurant and came out,” he said, and saw hundreds of people standing on the streets. The situation was similar in Peshawar where people were seen standing outside their homes and offices. In Afghanistan, Zabihullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the Taliban government, tweeted that the ministry of public health had ordered all health centres to be on standby.
Shaking was felt over an area 1,000 kilometres wide by approximately 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, according to the EMSC.