A powerful earthquake shook parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday night. In Pakistan, a local civil protection official in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa spoke of at least nine dead and at least 40 wounded. Several injuries were reported in Afghanistan. The full extent of the quake was still unclear late in the evening.
According to the Pakistan Meteorological Authority, the earthquake in the capital Islamabad had a magnitude of 6.8. The US Earthquake Monitor located the quake’s epicenter in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan province, in the village of Jum, and assigned the site a magnitude of 6.5. The German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) in Potsdam claimed on its website that it had a magnitude of 6.5 and located the quake at a depth of up to 200 kilometers.
Strong earthquakes repeatedly
Strong earthquakes occur repeatedly in the Hindu Kush region and neighboring countries where the Arabian, Indian and Eurasian plates meet. A devastating earthquake killed more than 1,000 people in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region in the summer of 2022.
The earthquake was felt as far north as Kazakhstan. Videos were shared on social media showing residents of the cities of Shymkent and Taras, in the south of the Central Asian country, excitedly running into the streets.
The earthquake brings back memories of severe earthquakes in Turkey and northern Syria in early February. More than 50,000 people died in Turkey alone. Around two million people had to be accommodated in emergency shelters such as tents and containers. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 6,800 people were killed in the aftershocks in Syria.