— Four dead, 50 wounded in Afghanistan
— Earthquake was felt by some 285 million people from India to central Asian countries
ISLAMABAD: At least nine people, including two children, were killed and 46 wounded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Pakistan and Afghanistan late on Tuesday, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the Provincial Disasters Management Authority (PDMA) said the powerful earthquake resulted in multiple incidents of collapsed walls and roofs, which caused fatalities.
Separately, Abdul Basit, a senior police official, told AFP that at least 19 houses were damaged.
Two people, including a 10-year-old girl, died in Madyan town of Swat; three in the Bajaur district of Malakand; two, including a boy, in Lower Dir; and one child in the Abbottabad, APP reported, citing the official.
پی ڈی ایم اے اپڈیٹس
خیبر پختونخوا میں زلزلے سےحادثات کےنتجے 9 افراد جابحق ہوئے ۔
۔مختلف حادثات کےنتجےمیں 44 افراد زخمی ہوئے۔
اب تک کی اطلاعات کےمطابق صوبہ بھر میں 19 گھروں کو جزوی نقصان پہنچا۔
سیکریٹری ریلیف عبدالباسط اور ڈی جی پی ڈی ایم اے ایمرجنسی آپریشن سنٹر میں موجود pic.twitter.com/LdpORywkIw
— PDMAKP OFFICIAL (@PDMAKP) March 21, 2023
Hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were put into a state of emergency overnight.
Abdul Basit, secretary of the provincial relief and rehabilitation department, and Sharif Hussain, director general of the PDMA, visited the Emergency Operation Centre to oversee relief efforts. They directed their respective teams to expedite relief activities and use all resources and equipment available to them.
The secretary also instructed Rescue 1122 to provide immediate medical care to the injured and transport them to nearby hospitals without any delay.
The district administration, Rescue 1122, and Civil Defence were asked to remain on high alert.
The PDMA remained in constant communication with the district administrations and other concerned institutions in all affected areas, and all available resources were mobilised to provide quick relief to victims.
The situation was being continuously monitored and citizens were advised to report any untoward incidents through helplines 1700 or 1122, APP said.
The quake was felt over an area more than 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) wide by some 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.
The epicentre was in the Hindu Kush mountains, in the sparsely populated northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, 40 kilometres southeast of Jurm village, at a considerable depth of 187 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.
FOUR DEAD IN AFGHANISTAN
Meanwhile, at least four people were killed and 50 injured in Afghanistan, a health ministry official there said.
Houses and buildings in both countries were also damaged, authorities said.
Shafiullah Rahimi, a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s disaster mitigation ministry, said late on Tuesday that two people had been killed in the eastern province of Laghman.
Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed more than 1,000 people last year.
In 2005, at least 73,000 people were killed by a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck Azad Kashmir.
— With AFP
