Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Earthquake rattles Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir

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ISLAMABAD/KABUL: An earthquake shook some buildings in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kashmir state in India on Friday, witnesses said.


The magnitude 6.1 quake was centred in mountainous Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan, at a depth of 210 km, the US Geological Survey said.


Officials in Kabul said they were assessing damage in areas around the sparsely populated epicentre.


In Pakistan, tremors shook furniture and power cable poles. There were no immediate reports of casualties.


Waseem Ahmad, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority in Islamabad, estimated the quake to be about 6.4 magnitude.


“I was with my kids at a badminton court when we felt strong jolts,” said Nusrat Jabeen in Pakistan’s capital. “It was very scary. We felt everything was shaking. We ran out for safety.”


Tremors were also felt in India’s mountainous Kashmir state where people rushed out of their homes and offices.


The Indian subcontinent has suffered some of the largest earthquakes in the world.


Tremors of the quake, which occurred at 5.09 pm and whose epicentre was in the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan with a depth of 210 km, were also felt across north India as far as the Delhi-NCR region, the IMD said.


Tremors were felt for several seconds in various parts of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh at 5.13 pm, an official of the meteorological office in Chandigarh said.


The earthquake was felt in several parts of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and eastern Punjab provinces and other northern areas of Pakistan, Xinhua news agency reported.


No loss of life or property has been immediately reported, but the quake created panic among the people who scrambled out of buildings and compounds.


The depth of the quake was 190 km, as per the India Meteorological Department, which initially estimated its magnitude at 7.1 before revising it. — Reuters


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