PESHAWAR: At least 10 people were killed in Pakistan and four in Afghanistan as a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck large swathes of the two neighbouring countries on Tuesday evening, officials said on Wednesday.
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority for Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said 10 people had been killed in the province and 62 were injured. At least 55 houses had been partially destroyed and 10 had been fully destroyed, while rescue officials had taken injured people to hospitals.
“The provincial Emergency Center at PDMA, Rescue 1122 and district administrations are on high alert in case of aftershocks,” PDMA spokesperson Taimur Ali told Arab News.
Bilal Faizi, a spokesperson for Rescue 1122 said: “The emergency phase was completed earlier tonight and soon the phase of relief and then rehabilitation will be initiated.”
He added that over a 100 people who fell unconscious “out of shock and fear” during the tremors were also taken to nearby hospitals.
People gather outside a mall following an earthquake in Islamabad, Pakistan, on March 21, 2023. (AFP)
The US Geological Survey said the epicenter of the magnitude 6.5 quake was 40 kilometers (25 miles) south-southeast of the district of Jurm in Afghanistan’s mountainous Hindukush region, bordering Pakistan and Tajikistan. The quake struck 188 kilometers (116 miles) deep below the Earth’s surface, causing it to be felt over a wide area.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, Sharafat Zaman Amar, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for the public health ministry, said the earthquake killed four people and injured 70. He said casualties and damages were reported from different provinces, Two people died in the northern Takhar province and one child died in the eastern Laghman province.
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed more than 1,000 people last year.
In 2005, at least 73,000 people were killed by a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck northern Pakistan.
