A powerful earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale hit Afghanistan and Pakistan, causing five deaths and injuring at least 49 people. The earthquake struck 40 km southeast of Jurm town in Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province and was also felt in north India. CNN reports that the quake was 187.6 km deep, according to the US Geological Survey.
Shafiullah Rahimi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Disaster Management, stated that two people died in Afghanistan's Laghman province, where at least eight more people were injured. Pakistan reported three deaths, including two children, and 41 people were injured in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to Bilal Faizi, spokesperson for the provincial rescue services.
The quake triggered landslides that blocked roads in the city of Abbottabad and the Karakoram Highway in the Harban area of Kohistan. Major Pakistani cities, including Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Muzaffarabad, Peshawar, Haripur, Mardan, Chitral, and Charsadda, were also affected.
Videos from Islamabad showed people in high-rises rushing out of their homes in panic, and reports of cracked buildings in Islamabad and the Al-Janaat Mall in Rawalpindi surfaced. In north India, the quake was felt from Kashmir to Delhi-NCR, causing fans and appliances to sway and many people to run out of their homes.
(Written by Eastern Mirror with inputs from IANS)