At least 13 folks had been killed and dozens of others had been injured after a powerful earthquake shook northern Pakistan and was felt in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, and India’s capital New Delhi late Tuesday.
At least 9 folks had been killed and 44 injured in northwest Pakistan, a Pakistani authorities official mentioned, and hospitals in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province had been put right into a state of emergency in a single day.
At least 4 folks had been killed and 50 injured in Afghanistan, a well being ministry official there mentioned. Houses and buildings in each nations had been additionally broken, authorities mentioned.
Residents in Islamabad fled their houses as partitions began swaying and the 30-second lasting quake was felt throughout the nation. Pakistan’s meteorological workplace mentioned the earthquake was a magnitude 7.7 however the Pakistan Meteorological Department revised it down to six.8.
The meteorological company mentioned the quake was centered in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan’s border areas.
The U.S. Geological Survey mentioned the quake was a magnitude 6.5.
The quake epicenter was 40 kilometers (25 miles) south-southeast of the Afghan city of Jurm, close to the borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan.
It struck at a depth of greater than 185 miles, USGS mentioned.
“People ran out of their houses and were reciting the Koran,” an AFP correspondent in Rawalpindi mentioned, with related stories coming from the capital Islamabad, Lahore and elsewhere within the nation.
Two folks, together with a toddler, had been killed in Laghman province, Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Natural Disaster Management, informed AFP.
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid mentioned well being facilities throughout the nation had been placed on excessive alert.
Noor Mohammad Hanifi, a shopkeeper in Kabul, arrange tents in a road for his household to spend the night time in.
“Nobody dares to go inside their homes,” Hanifi informed AFP as his household, cloaked in blankets, took shelter.
Hanafi mentioned he felt dizzy when the quake hit as he had simply returned from an extended journey.
“But when I heard the doors and windows shaking I realized it was an earthquake.”
‘We all ran out’
In Pakistan, frightened folks fled their houses because the tremor hit.
“People ran out of their houses and were reciting the Koran,” mentioned an AFP correspondent in Pakistan’s metropolis of Rawalpindi.
Ikhlaq Kazmi, a retired professor within the metropolis, mentioned his whole home began shaking.
“The children started shouting that there is an earthquake,” he mentioned. “We all ran out.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the National Disaster Management Authority to be able to cope with any emergency.
At least 180 individuals who suffered minor accidents had been taken to hospitals throughout the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, Shahidullah Khan, a senior authorities official, informed AFP.
There are kids among the many useless, in line with the National Disaster Management Authority. The company mentioned not less than 30 folks had been injured.
Most deaths have occurred within the nation’s distant north-western area that borders Afghanistan, the company mentioned. The casualties had been brought on by collapsing homes and crumbling partitions.
A state of emergency has been declared in most mountainous districts within the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the more serious affected area, in line with native officers.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered the catastrophe companies to achieve the distant areas as quickly as potential, his secretariat mentioned.
In Afghanistan, many households had been out of their houses celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year, when the quake struck.
“I heard people screaming and yelling as they came out in the streets,” mentioned Masieh, who was outdoors along with his household when the tremor hit.
“It’s possible that there could be another tremor so I’m still waiting outside.”
Those indoors additionally rapidly left their homes and flats.
“They just fled without wearing shoes, just carrying their children in their hands,” an AFP correspondent mentioned.
In June of final 12 months greater than 1,000 folks had been killed and tens of 1000’s made homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake — the deadliest in Afghanistan in almost 1 / 4 of a century— struck the impoverished province of Paktika.
Over 55,000 folks had been killed by an earthquake that struck southeastern Türkiye and elements of Syria final month.
Afghanistan is within the grips of a humanitarian catastrophe made worse by the Taliban takeover of the nation in August 2021.
International improvement funding on which the South Asian nation relied dried up after the takeover and property held overseas had been frozen.
The space is regularly hit by earthquakes, particularly within the Hindu Kush mountain vary, which lies close to the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake in jap Afghanistan killed over 1,000 folks final 12 months.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
