Reports confirm scores have died and hundreds are injured.
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Scores of people were injured.
The quake was 132 miles deep and centred 158 miles northeast of Kabul in a remote area of Afghanistan in the Hindu Kush mountain range. “A lot of the phone lines are still down”, said Scott Anderson, deputy head of office for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Kabul. “I was rushing out of the house when the wall collapsed”, Ms. Bibi said from a hospital bed.
Afghanistans Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah tweeted that it was the strongest quake felt in recent decades. He urged people to stay outdoors because of possible aftershocks. In Kabul, the natural disaster caused widespread power outages and telephone cuts. Many people fled to the streets. “Right after that we saw a major landslide. But within seconds, the earth began shaking below my feet, and that’s when I ran out of the building”, government official Naseer Ahmed told the CBC. “I’ve never experienced anything like it”, he said.
Latest reports indicate that at least 80 people have have been confirmed dead across Afghanistan.
Tremors from the magnitude 7.5 quake were also felt in northern India and Tajikistan. It says other homes collapsed in northern Pakistan, without providing further details.
Poor security played a role as well: In Afghanistan in particular, the hardest-hit areas were those also most affected by militant violence, including an intense Taliban offensive that has stretched for weeks in remote parts of the north.
Islamabad has ordered the military to affected areas.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has ordered an urgent assessment of any damage.
In the northern valley of Swat, at least 35 people were killed, local officials said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 and occurred at a depth of 212 kilometers (130 miles). Jim Dresbach adapted this story for Learning English.
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