ON Tuesday, a powerful earthquake measuring 6.5 in magnitude struck the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, leaving at least 13 people dead and hundreds injured.
The tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi, India. The quake’s epicenter was located 40 km southeast of the Afghan town of Jurm, near the borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
In northwest Pakistan, 9 people were killed and 44 injured, according to a government official.
Hospitals in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were put on high alert overnight as patients continued to arrive.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, at least 4 people were killed and 50 injured, a health ministry official confirmed.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) stated that the earthquake was felt across an area more than 1,000 km wide, with some 285 million people affected in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department reported that the magnitude was slightly higher, at 6.8, and a 3.7 magnitude aftershock was felt in the Hindu Kush Region along the country’s border with Afghanistan.
In line with this, there are roofs collapsed in several parts of northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 9 people, according to Bilal Faizi, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Rescue 1122 service.
Faizi also confirmed that landslides caused damage in the swat district, which is located 180 km northwest of the capital Islamabad and more than 20 buildings suffered damage, and scores of people were injured, Faizi added.
Hospitals in the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province treated at least 250 patients, with 15 of them sustaining minor injuries and over 200 being unconscious.
In other parts of the province, 52 people were injured.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged the country’s disaster management officials to remain vigilant in the aftermath of the earthquake.
The disaster has once again highlighted the vulnerability of the region to natural disasters, and the need for better disaster management and preparedness.
It can be remembered that in 2005, at least 73,000 people were killed by a 7.6 magnitude quake that jolted Northern Pakistan, and more than 1,000 people were killed last year after a magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit Eastern Afghanistan.
