Quake Triggers Panic in Northwest Pakistan: Patients Screaming

A powerful earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck Abbottabad city in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday night, killing at least 13 people, including four in neighbouring Afghanistan. The quake’s epicentre was located 40km southeast of the Afghan town of Jurm, near the borders of Pakistan and Tajikistan. Tremors were felt across cities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre. The 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan killed 73,000 people. Rescue officials in Pakistan have reported that at least nine people were killed and 47 injured in different areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The quake also triggered landslides in the province’s Swat district. Sharafat Zaman, spokesman for Afghanistan’s health ministry, said on Twitter that at least four people were killed in the earthquake in the country.