SRINAGAR: The powerful tremors that shook Kashmir valley at around 10:17 pm on Tuesday and made the frightened people flee their homes, has killed at least nine people in Pakistan and four in Afghanistan, as per media reports.
In Afghanistan, at least four people were killed and 70 others injured in affected areas across the country, according to Sharafat Zaman Amar, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health.
But the number of fatalities may climb as search and rescue teams reach more affected villages, said Shafiullah Rahimi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Disaster Management. Som
At least nine people were killed and 44 injured in northwest Pakistan, a Pakistani government official said, and hospitals in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were put into a state of emergency overnight.
The United States Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.5 quake was centred in the Hindu Kush mountains, near the Jurm village in northeastern Afghanistan, but the depth of 187 kilometres mitigated extensive damage.
It was felt by some 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.
Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate. A 6.1 magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed more than 1,000 people last year. In 2005, at least 73,000 people were killed by a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck northern Pakistan.
