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At least 2 people were killed and hundreds injured as a result of the devastating earthquake that occurred in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. Photo/[email protected]
ISLAMABAD – At least two people were killed and hundreds were injured in Pakistan north after earthquake a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale (SR) hit areas throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan. Earthquake vibrations were also felt in the capital India New Delhi.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the epicenter was 40 km south-southeast of the city of Jurm, Afghanistan, near the borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan.
Separately, Pakistan’s Meteorological Department put the magnitude of the earthquake slightly higher at 6.8, and later reported a 3.7 aftershock in the Hindu Kush region along the country’s border with Afghanistan.
At least two people, including a child, were killed in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as a result of the quake, rescue workers told Al Jazeera.
“A 10-year-old girl in Swat, and a 24-year-old man in Lower Dir died when the walls of their (respective) houses collapsed,” said Bilal Faizi, spokesman for the Rescue 1122 service in the northwestern province. , Wednesday (22/3/2023).
According to Faizi, landslides have caused damage in Swat district, 180 km northwest of the capital Islamabad.
“More than 20 buildings were damaged by the shaking, and dozens of people were injured,” he said.
Hospitals in the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province treated at least 250 patients, 15 of whom suffered minor injuries and more than 200 were unconscious. Fifty-two people were injured in other parts of the province, officials said.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked the country’s disaster management officials to remain vigilant in the aftermath of the quake.
