Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, was rocked by a violent earthquake late in the evening (local time). According to the Pakistan Meteorological Authority, the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.8. The US Earthquake Monitor located the quake’s epicenter in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan province, in the city of Jurm, and assigned the site a magnitude of 6.5.
According to a local civil protection agency, at least nine people were killed and at least 40 others were injured in Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The number could still increase. Several injuries were reported in Afghanistan. The full extent of the quake was still unclear late in the evening.
I also felt it in Kazakhstan
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.
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.