A violent earthquake, which lasted more than 30 seconds, hit a large area of Pakistan and Afghan territory on Tuesday evening. According to it US Geological Survey the quake was of magnitude 6.5. It was felt over a very large area, from Turkmenistan to India. “People came out of their homes and started praying the Koran,” said an AFP correspondent from Rawalpindi in Pakistan’s Punjab.
At least two people have died in Pakistan including a 12-year-old girl and a woman in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after a roof collapsed.
The earthquake had a depth of 194 km: the epicenter was in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the remote northern Afghan province of Badakhshan. It is not yet clear whether there is damage or casualties.
Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because the tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing northward into the Eurasian plate.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed more than 1,000 people last year.