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A magnitude 6.5 earthquake shook Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday, sending panicked residents fleeing their homes and offices and scaring people even in remote villages. At least nine people were killed.
More than 100 people were taken to hospitals in the Swat valley region of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in shock, Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s emergency services told The Associated Press.
“These frightened people collapsed, and some of them collapsed from the shock of the earthquake,” he said. Faizi said most of them were discharged from the hospital.
Faizi and other officials said nine people were killed when roofs collapsed in various parts of northwest Pakistan. Dozens more were injured in the earthquake, which was centered in Afghanistan and was also felt on the border of Tajikistan.
Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority in the northwest, said at least 19 brick houses collapsed in the remote area. “We are still collecting data on the damage,” he said.
Strong tremors sent many people fleeing their homes and offices in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, some reciting verses from the Koran, Islam’s holy book. Media reports say cracks are visible in several apartment buildings in the city.
The scene was repeated in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan.
“The earthquake was so strong and scary, we thought the houses were collapsing, people were shouting and shocked,” said Shafiullah Azimi, a resident of Kabul.
The US Geological Survey said the epicenter of the 6.5-magnitude quake was located 40 kilometers southeast of Jurm in Afghanistan’s mountainous Hindukush region, bordering Pakistan and Tajikistan. It is said that the depth of the earthquake is 187.6 kilometers.
Rakhshinda Tauseed, a doctor, said she was in a hospital in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore when the earthquake struck. “I quickly asked the patient to move to a safer place,” he said.
Khurram Shahzad, a resident of the Pakistani garrison town of Rawalpindi, said he was having dinner with his family at a restaurant when the walls started shaking.
“I quickly thought that this was a big one, and we left the restaurant and got out,” he told The Associated Press by phone. He said he saw hundreds of people standing on the street.
The situation was similar in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan, where people were seen standing outside their homes and offices.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a statement said he has asked disaster management officials to remain alert to handle any situation.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the Taliban government in Afghanistan, tweeted that the Ministry of Public Health ordered all health centers to be on alert.
The area is prone to violent seismic upheaval. A 7.6 magnitude earthquake in 2005 killed thousands in Pakistan and Kashmir.
Last year in southeastern Afghanistan, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of flat rock and mud-brick homes. Taliban authorities in Afghanistan put the death toll from the quake at 1,150, with hundreds more injured, while the UN has given a lower estimate of 770.
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