In Afghanistan, a spokesman for the Public Health Ministry said around 457 people had been injured, according to numbers gathered from hospitals in the country’s different provinces, and more than 1,500 homes have been destroyed or partially destroyed.
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He said the death toll could climb in coming days as communications are down in much of the remote mountainous region.
The epicenter of Monday’s quake was just a few hundred kilometers from the site of a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck in October 2005, killing more than 75,000 people and displacing some 3.5 million more, although that quake was much shallower.
Wafaq-ul-Madaris-e-Arabia, Pakistan’s largest federation of seminaries in the Deobandi school of Islam, also said it was pleased at an uptick in mosque attendance following the quake because “collective repentance is the need of the hour, “Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper reported”. (Reuters – Edit No: 1258) An Afghan TV presenter who was in the middle of reporting the news was forced to leave his desk as the natural disaster shook the building.
Officials there have reported at least 130 deaths, mostly in northern and northwestern regions.
“QRFs are busy in rescue work mainly in Malakand, Dir, Chitral and Bajaur while continuous damage assessment is under way”, he added.
Pakistan’s military and civilian authorities dispatched several helicopters to affected areas to assess damage and run rescue operations, the National Disaster Management Authority said.
– India has pledged to help both Afghanistan and Pakistan with the rescue effort. Many more were injured.
The toll from Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province was likely to rise as reports came in from remote areas.
In the most severely affected areas of Pakistan, officials said at least 154 deaths have been confirmed alone in Khyber Pakh-tun-khwa province.
Reports say buildings also swayed in the Indian capital, New Delhi, forcing office workers out into the streets.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is cutting short a visit overseas and returning home.
A powerful 7.5-magnitude quake that rocked parts of South Asia killed at least 215 people yesterday, including 12 Afghan girls crushed in a stampede as they fled their collapsing school.
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“The USA government has been in touch with the governments in Afghanistan and Pakistan and we stand ready to provide any additional support that may be needed”, the U.S. White House press secretary Josh Earnest told a daily press briefing.
