A powerful 7.5-magnitude quake has struck in northern Afghanistan and has been felt in a large area from northern India to Pakistan with scores of people killed across the region.
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So far, the Guardian reports, there have been: five deaths and 55 people injured at Nangahar provincial hospital in Afghanistan; 12 deaths and 30 injuries at a girls’ school Takhar province in Afghanistan; 12 people killed and 50 injured in the northwestern region of Pakistan. Frightened workers who had just returned from lunch break, rushed out of swaying buildings in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and the Indian capital of New Delhi. The quake’s depth was reported at 132 miles, the United States Geological Survey said, and its effects were felt as far away as New Delhi.
In Pakistan, buildings collapsed while Afghan capital Kabul experienced power outages and disconnected phone lines.
Rescue teams have been sent to remote mountainous areas in both countries, where the effects of the quake are still unclear.
Tremors were also felt in major cities, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Kohat and Malakand.
“I was in my auto and, when I stopped my vehicle, the auto itself was shaking as if someone was pushing it back and forth”. “Then suddenly, people started coming out of the building in front”.
In Kabul – 160 miles from the quake’s epicenter – people flooded onto the streets as furniture began to shake. White House spokesman Josh earnest says the USA government has been in touch with officials in Afghanistan and Pakistan and is ready to provide any additional support. At least 100 houses were damaged. “I offered all possible assistance”, Modi said in a tweet.
The death toll is expected to rise. Injured people were pouring into Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital, an official said.
He had earlier called an emergency meeting of disaster officials, which was broadcast live on television. He also warned of aftershocks from the quake.
Telephone services were disrupted across a wide section of northern Afghanistan.
The Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and Takhar were hit hard.
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It has however, been reported that 12 Afghani school girls were killed in a crush immediately after the quake, as they attempted to flee the building they were in.
