At least 9 individuals had been killed and dozens of others had been injured after a robust earthquake shook northern Pakistan and was felt in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, and India’s capital New Delhi late Tuesday.
Reports of the extent of the destruction started progressively trickling in from distant areas, however dawn would reveal a fuller image.
Residents in Islamabad fled their properties 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 comparable experiences coming from the capital Islamabad, Lahore and elsewhere within the nation.
Two individuals, together with a baby, had been killed in Laghman province, Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Natural Disaster Management, advised 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 evening in.
“Nobody dares to go inside their homes,” Hanifi advised AFP as his household, cloaked in blankets, took shelter.
Hanafi mentioned he felt dizzy when the quake hit as he had simply returned from a protracted journey.
“But when I heard the doors and windows shaking I realized it was an earthquake.”
‘We all ran out’
In Pakistan, frightened individuals fled their properties 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 total 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, advised AFP.
There are youngsters among the many useless, based on the National Disaster Management Authority. The company mentioned not less than 30 individuals 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 severe affected area, based on native officers.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered the catastrophe companies to succeed in the distant areas as quickly as potential, his secretariat mentioned.
In Afghanistan, many households had been out of their properties 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 exterior together 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 shortly left their homes and residences.
“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 individuals had been killed and tens of 1000’s made homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake — the deadliest in Afghanistan in practically 1 / 4 of a century— struck the impoverished province of Paktika.
Over 55,000 individuals had been killed by an earthquake that struck southeastern Türkiye and components 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 belongings held overseas had been frozen.
The space is steadily 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 japanese Afghanistan killed over 1,000 individuals final 12 months.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
