Huge quake rocks south Asia, 16 dead
A huge 7.6-magnitude earthquake rocked India, Pakistan and Afghanistan today.
The earthquake killed at least 16 in India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, officials said, and there are fears of widespead damage.
Early reports said at least a dozen people were injured and part of a 19-storey building collapsed in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
A Pakistani army spokesman said massive damage was feared in northern areas.
Police in Lahore said at least eight people were injured and four shops were damaged. The earthquake also damaged part of a school in Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad, injuring at least two girls.
Rescue workers were on the scene of the collapse in Islamabad, and at least two injured people were carried from the debris.
In Islamabad, buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute at 8.50am local time (4.50am Irish time). Panicked people ran out of homes and offices in many cities. Slight tremors continued afterwards.
The US Geological Survey said on its website that the quake had a magnitude of 7.6 and that its epicentre was 50 miles north-northeast of Islamabad.
Arif Mahmood, a seismological official in the north-western city of Peshawar, said the earthquake was felt in many parts of Pakistan.
“It was a very strong earthquake,” he said.
Mohammed Hanif, another seismological official, said the quake appeared to have been strongest in Islamabad.
Local television said the quake caused panic in the Pakistani capital, as well as in nearby Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta near the Afghan border.
It also frightened residents of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed in entirety by both.
Residents in the Afghan capital, Kabul, also felt the quake, fleeing their homes for fear they would collapse.
“We are calling all our officials in the provinces. But we haven’t received any reports yet of casualties,” said Saed Jawad Qanah, an official in Kabul with the disaster department of the Red Crescent Society.
US military spokesman Lt Col Jerry O’Hara said the quake was felt at Bagram, the main American base in Afghanistan, but he had no reports of damage at bases around the country.
The tremor also affected northern India.
“It was so strong that I saw buildings swaying. It was terrifying,” said Hari Singh, a guard in an apartment complex in the New Delhi suburb of Noida.
Hundreds of residents there raced down from their apartments after their beds and couches started shaking.
In Islamabad, dozens of people were feared trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building.
“We have received news of widespread damage in Pakistan’s northern areas, Kashmir and other parts of the country,” said Gen Shaukat Sultan, the spokesman for Pakistan’s army.
He said troops and helicopters were dispatched to earthquake-hit areas to conduct rescue operations.
Qaiser Abbas, a receptionist in the damaged apartment building in Islamabad, said he was sitting in his office when the building suddenly began to shake.
“After five seconds, I heard big sound, and then about 40 apartments collapsed,” he said.
The quake badly damaged one village near Balakot, a scenic town about 180 miles north east of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, said regional police chief Ataullah Wazir.
He said rescue teams were sent to the area. Local reports said many homes in Balakot had collapsed.
