A magnitude 6.5 earthquake ripped through northeast Afghanistan late Tuesday, sending tremors in neighboring Pakistan and causing people to flee their homes in terror.
There were conflicting reports about the epicenter of the earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey pinpointed the center about 25 miles south-southeast of Jurm in Afghanistan’s mountainous Hindukush region, bordering Pakistan and Tajikistan.
FILE: View to the Hindukush mountain on December 20, 2017 in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. (Getty Images)
At least 12 people were reported injured in northwest Pakistan. The tremors were so powerful that many people fled their homes and offices in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad.
The scene was repeated in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan.
The situation was similar in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan, where people were seen standing outside their homes and offices.
YOUNG AFGHAN WOMEN TRAIN AS MIDWIVES AS COUNTRY’S MATERNAL MORTALITY RATE IS AMONG HIGHEST IN WORLD
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a statement said he asked disaster management officials to remain vigilant to handle any situation.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the Taliban government in Afghanistan, tweeted that the Ministry of Public Health had ordered all health centers to be on standby.
The region is prone to violent seismic upheavals. A magnitude 7.6 quake in 2005 killed thousands of people in Pakistan and Kashmir.
Last year in southeastern Afghanistan, a 6.1 magnitude quake struck a rugged, mountainous region, flattening stone and mud-brick homes. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers put the total death toll from the quake at 1,150, with hundreds more injured, while the U.N. has offered a lower estimate of 770.
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Tuesday’s earthquake comes nearly two months after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey that killed more than 45,000.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
