Severe earthquake shakes Afghanistan, Pakistan and India

Am Hindu Kush became a heavy earthquake measured. According to the USGS, the tremors lasted at least 30 seconds and had a magnitude of 6.5. The epicenter was in northeastern Afghanistan in Badakhshan province, around 70 kilometers southeast of Faisabad. According to the USGS, the earthquake is said to have been measured at a depth of around 188 kilometers.

The full extent of the tremors was not yet foreseeable on Tuesday evening: the radical Islamic Taliban spoke of at least two deaths in Afghanistan. According to local media, at least 120 people were injured and nine dead in the city of Swat in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The number could increase further, it said. The quake is said to have killed at least three people in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

More than a thousand dead in 2022 earthquake

There were also isolated reports of damage. Images of collapsed houses were shared on Twitter; the recordings are said to come from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The earthquake could still be felt more than a thousand kilometers away: Residents of the Indian capital New Delhi ran out of fear of collapsing buildings onto the streets. There were similar reports from Islamabad and Lahore. According to the Pakistan Meteorological Authority, the earthquake in the Pakistani capital had a magnitude of 6.8. It was reported from Shymkent and Taras in Kazakhstan that residents had fled their homes.

More than a thousand people were killed in a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in Afghanistan last June. It was the deadliest earthquake in the country for almost a quarter of a century. Tens of thousands of people were also made homeless. Earthquakes are very common in Afghanistan, particularly in the Hindu Kush where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide. Since many houses in the poor country are badly built, the tremors often cause serious damage.

A devastating earthquake recently shook Turkey and Syria. More than 110,000 bodies were recovered in the 7.8 magnitude quake.