PESHAWAR/LAHORE - At least four people were killed and dozens others sustained injuries in Peshawar, Swat and Buner after powerful earthquake of 7.1 magnitude jolted various parts of the country on Sunday.

According to PDMA and emergency ward of Lady Reading Hospital, 38 quake-related minor injured were brought to hospital. They were discharged after first aid, said spokesman Jamil Shah.

The quake struck different parts of the country at about 3:27 pm. Most of the victims belonged to interior city and some rural parts of Peshawar.

Meanwhile, two people were killed and another injured after the tremors caused land sliding in Karakar area, the border region between Swat and Buner on Sunday.

Locals said a car coming from Swat area was hit by land sliding due to powerful earthquake on Karakar-Buner Road.

The land sliding also killed a child and injured another. The Buner area remained cut off from Swat following the land sliding.

Separately, two people including a child were killed in Shamak area of Khwazakhela Swat when boundary wall of a house collapsed.

Nine injured were brought to Saidu Sharif Hospital Swat who sustained injuries due to wall collapse in the aftermath of powerful earthquake.

According to Provincial Disaster Management Authority Spokesman Latifur Rahman, two people were killed in Buner and two in Swat and 38 others injured as a result of the quake.

An official of the provincial disaster management authority in Peshawar said they have received reports of 12 other people injured in Swat, Bunair and upper Dir districts.

Meanwhile, high intensity earthquake also hit Lahore yesterday, causing panicked people to come out of their houses reciting verses from the Holy Quran.

Magnitude of quake was recorded 7.1 on Richter Scale, its epicenter was 236 kilometer in depth in Hindu Kush mountain range on Pak-Afghan border near Chitral, Director Meteorological Department Sahibzada Khan told The Nation. He said that shocks were felt twice, with a break of few seconds, for one and a half minute.

Like the previous incidents, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) again gave different reading than that of Geological Department. This time the USGS measured the magnitude of termer at 6.6.

In Lahore, the powerful jolts forced panicked people to come out of their homes while reciting verses from the Holy Quran. Similar reports were received from other cities across Pakistan.

The tremors were felt across the country including Swat, Chitral, Abbottabad, Peshawar, Mansehra, Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot and other cities. It was one of the most severe earthquakes in country’s history and there may be aftershocks considering the high magnitude.

In Islamabad, some residents evacuated apartment blocks after tremors shook ceiling fans and furniture.

The greater depth and distance from highly populated areas however made Sunday’s quake less damaging than that of 7.6 magnitude Kashmir quake of 2005, which had killed more than 100,000 people – most of them in Azad Jammu and Kashmir – and displaced some 3.5 million.

Kashmir quake was centered near Muzaffarabad just at 15 kilometer depth. Even 8.1 magnitude earthquake on October 26 last year was not that devastating due to huge distance of epicenter from Pakistan and more depth.

Pak-Afghan border is frequently hit by earthquakes, in the Hindu Kush mountain range, lying near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

Agencies add: Besides Pakistan, the earthquake also jolted large parts of South Asia including Afghanistan, India and Tajikistan.

It was felt for a few seconds in the Afghan capital Kabul 282 km to the south.

In the Indian capital New Delhi, buildings in the centre swayed and the metro train system was halted temporarily as a precaution.

People rushed out of their homes in the northern region of Indian-occupied Kashmir.

The USGS said the quake was centred about 40 km west of Ashkasham in remote northeastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Tajikistan and just across a narrow finger of land from Pakistan’s Chitral. It was measured at a depth of 210 km.

Residents left their homes in Kabul and Islamabad when the quake struck, with buildings swaying for more than a minute in both capitals. Similar reports were received from across northern and central Pakistan.

Tremors were also felt in the Indian capital and in Kashmir, witnesses said, with some people working in high-rise buildings in the Indian capital rushing into the streets.