ISLAMABAD - A 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit southeastern parts of Afghanistan which rocked a large part of Pakistan on Wednesday afternoon. No casualty was reported but a media report said that some walls of mud-houses collapsed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department measured the quake at 6.2-magnitude. The jolts were felt in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Peshawar, Swat, Parachanar, Muzafarabad, Mirpur and many other towns and villages.
The epicenter of the quake was some 71 miles from Afghan capital Kabul.
In Pakistan, buildings shook for more than 40 seconds and, in many areas, frightened people ran into the streets.
US Geological Survey confirmed that the epicenter of the quake was at eastern Afghanistan near Pakistani border.
At least 33 people were killed and dozens injured when the earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
Six people, including some children, died in Nangarhar province, and 75 people were injured, said provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai. One person was killed and one injured in neighbouring Kunar province and many homes were destroyed, said local government spokesman Wasefullah Wasef. The US Geological Survey said that strong tremors felt in Afghanistan capital Kabul and Islamabad in neighbouring Pakistan.
The quake struck at a depth of 65 kilometres, 25 kilometres northwest of Jalalabad, the main town in eastern Afghanistan close to the Pakistani border, the USGS said.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the juncture of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In June 2012, two quakes in the area triggered landslides that killed at least 75 villagers. Wednesday’s tremors came a week after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Iran affected thousands of people in remote southeastern Pakistan and killed 41 people.
Pakistan was hit by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake on October 8, 2005, that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The quake was felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi. Buildings swayed in New Delhi and people ran into the street in the disputed northern region of Kashmir.
Last week, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 200 people in southwest China.