11 Killed as Robust Earthquake Rattles Pakistan, Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A magnitude 6.5 earthquake rattled a lot of Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday, sending panicked residents fleeing from properties and workplaces and scary folks in distant villages. Not less than 9 folks died in Pakistan and two in Afghanistan, officers mentioned Wednesday

Greater than 200 folks have been delivered to hospitals within the Swat valley and elsewhere within the area of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in a state of shock, Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s emergency providers informed The Related Press.

“These terrified folks collapsed, and a few of them collapsed due to the shock of the earthquake,” he mentioned. Faizi mentioned most have been later discharged from the hospital.

Faizi and different officers mentioned 9 folks have been killed when roofs collapsed in varied elements of northwestern Pakistan. Dozens of others have been injured within the quake, which was centered in Afghanistan and likewise felt in bordering Tajikistan. The earthquake triggered landslides in a few of the mountainous areas, disrupting site visitors.

The 9 individuals who died in northwest Pakistan included 5 males, two ladies and two youngsters.

Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the provincial catastrophe administration authority within the northwest, mentioned not less than 19 mudbrick properties collapsed in distant areas. “We’re nonetheless accumulating knowledge in regards to the damages,” he mentioned. On Wednesday.

The highly effective tremors despatched many individuals fleeing their properties and workplaces in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, some reciting verses from the Quran, Islam’s holy e-book. Media studies prompt cracks had appeared in some house buildings within the metropolis.

In Afghanistan, Sharafat Zaman Amar, Taliban’s appointed spokesman for the general public well being ministry mentioned, thus far not less than two folks died and round 20 others have been injured within the earthquake in Afghanistan.

Zaman Amar mentioned “Sadly, there may very well be extra casualties because the quake was so highly effective, in most elements of the nation” all hospitals and well being amenities are prepared to save lots of lives of individuals, he added.

The scene was repeated in Kabul and different elements of Afghanistan.

“The quake was so robust and terrifying, we thought homes are collapsing on us, folks have been all shouting and have been shocked,” mentioned Shafiullah Azimi, a Kabul resident.

Aziz Ahmad, 45, one other Kabul resident, mentioned “In my life this was first time I’ve skilled such highly effective quake, everybody was terrified,” He added he and all his neighbors stayed out of their properties for hours, afraid of aftershocks. “We could not dare to get again properties.”

The U.S. Geological Survey mentioned the epicenter of the magnitude 6.5 quake was 40 kilometers (25 miles) south-southeast of Jurm in Afghanistan’s mountainous Hindukush area, bordering Pakistan and Tajikistan. The quake struck 188 kilometers (116 miles) deep beneath the Earth’s floor, inflicting it to felt over a large space.

Doctor Rakhshinda Tauseed was at her hospital within the jap Pakistani metropolis of Lahore when the earthquake hit. “I rapidly requested sufferers to go transfer to a safer place,” she mentioned.

Khurram Shahzad, a resident in Pakistan’s garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi, mentioned he was having dinner along with his household at a restaurant when the partitions began swaying.

“I rapidly thought that it’s a huge one, and we left the restaurant and got here out,” he informed The Related Press by telephone. He mentioned he noticed tons of of individuals standing on the streets.

The scenario was comparable in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan, the place folks have been seen standing exterior their properties and workplaces.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in an announcement mentioned he requested catastrophe administration officers to stay vigilant to deal with any scenario.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the principle spokesman for the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, tweeted that the Ministry of Public Well being had ordered all well being facilities to be on standby.

The area is susceptible to violent seismic upheavals. A magnitude 7.6 quake in 2005 killed 1000’s of individuals in Pakistan and Kashmir.

Final yr in southeastern Afghanistan, a 6.1 magnitude quake struck a rugged, mountainous area, flattening stone and mud-brick properties. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers put the entire demise toll from the quake at 1,150, with tons of extra injured, whereas the U.N. has provided a decrease estimate of 770.

The newest earthquake hit Pakistan because it struggles to get well from final summer season’s devastating floods which killed 1,739 folks. Swat valley in northwest Pakistan was among the many areas hit by the floods worsened by local weather change.

Related Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar and Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

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