Strong earthquake in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India

By Le Figaro with AFP

Published on 03/21/2023 at 19:57

This content is not accessible to all.

Gathering of hotel customers in front of their house after an earthquake in India, March 21, 2023. NARIDER NANU / AFP

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake on Tuesday evening, March 21, shook Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India, leaving residents reeling.

“It was terrifying. I’ve never seen such tremors in my life,” Khatera, a resident of the Afghan capital, told AFP. The 50-year-old stormed out of her apartment on the fifth floor of a residential building in Kabul with her family.

This content is not accessible to all.

So far, thank God, there hasn’t been any bad news about victims.

Zabihullah Mujahid, Afghan government spokesman

The earthquake’s epicenter was in northeastern Afghanistan near the town of Jorm on the border with Pakistan and Tajikistan at a depth of 187 km, according to the American seismological institute USGS. No casualties or damage were immediately reported, but the quake was felt strongly across much of Afghanistan, Pakistan and even further east in parts of India.

“So far, thank God, there hasn’t been any bad news about victims. We hope all citizens of the country are safe,” Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted. He said the country’s health centers had been put on high alert.

Nowruz Day

It was 9:17 p.m. local time in Afghanistan when the earthquake, which lasted at least 30 seconds, struck. In Afghanistan, many families had fled their homes to celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year, when the tremors were felt.

An AFP journalist said several of his neighbors fled their building in central Kabul with their children. “They fled barefoot, with their children in their hands,” he said. Also in Pakistan, residents of the northeastern city of Rawalpindi fled their homes. “People ran out of their homes and recited the Koran,” said an AFP correspondent in the city.

” ALSO READ – The Taliban in the Pillory of the Muslim World

A humanitarian catastrophe

The earthquake struck in the mountainous Hindu Kush region, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, said the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC), which also recorded a magnitude of 6.5.

This content is not accessible to all.

On June 22, 2022, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake killed more than a thousand people and left tens of thousands homeless in Afghanistan. This earthquake, which has struck poor Paktika province, is the country’s deadliest in nearly a quarter century.

Afghanistan is currently mired in a humanitarian catastrophe, made worse by the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021. The international funding the South Asian country relied on dried up after the Taliban took power and assets held abroad were frozen. Last month, more than 55,000 people were killed by an earthquake that shook southeast Turkey and parts of Syria.