Some citizens after leaving a restaurant shortly after feeling the earthquake in Lahore (Pakistan) this Tuesday.AKHTAR SOOMRO (Portal)
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck various parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India on Tuesday, according to the United States Center for Geological Studies (USGS, for its English acronym). Portal news agency reports that the earthquake was felt in Kabul, Islamabad and New Delhi, the respective capitals of the three hardest-hit countries. At least two people have died in Afghanistan and a young girl in Pakistan, according to the authorities.
The earthquake struck at 9:17 p.m. local time (5:47 p.m. in mainland Spain) with the epicenter in northeastern Afghanistan, near the town of Jorm in Badakhshan province, near the Hindu Kush mountains, according to the USGS. . . The depth of the earthquake was 194 kilometers. “People ran away with the Koran in their hands,” reported a journalist from the AFP agency, which is located in the city of Rawalpindi, with a population of 2.1 million, in the Pakistani province of Punjab.
A 13-year-old girl died in Pakistan’s Swat district after a wall of her home fell on her. On the other hand, police authorities in the same district told Portal that at least 34 people were injured in that area in the north of the country. Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for Afghanistan’s Emergencies Ministry, said two people had died in eastern Lagman province.
The Afghan Ministry of Health has ordered all medical centers to remain on alert. However, the earthquake caused minor damage to some houses in Tahar province, which borders Badajshan, the region’s disaster management director Mohammad Kamgar told Efe.
A Red Cross spokesman said there was little information on the situation in Badakhshan but verification work was being carried out in other areas. Mahzudeen Ahmadi, head of the area’s intelligence department, told Portal they are also sweeping the province for those affected but have no information on victims yet. “We felt a strong earthquake, according to preliminary information, the main place (affected) was Yamgan district (in Badjshan province),” he explained.
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Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region is a point of major seismic activity and a source of telluric movement in the region. In late June, a similar magnitude 5.9 earthquake in the eastern provinces of Paktika and Khost, bordering Pakistan, killed more than a thousand people and injured about 1,500, in addition to destroying hundreds of homes. Last year was the deadliest tremor to hit the region in nearly 20 years. The country in the north of the country also suffered a catastrophe in 1998 when two earthquakes measuring 5.9 and 6 in magnitude claimed around 4,000 lives in February. A few months later, in late May, another magnitude 7 earthquake struck the area, killing around 5,000 people.
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