Earthquake in Afghanistan and Pakistan: confirm the death of at least 12 people

The 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck the border between the two countries. They warn that there could be more fatalities.

At least 12 people died and another 204 were injured in Afghanistan and Pakistan, after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake shook the border between the two countries on Tuesday, in the Afghan Hindu Kush area.

Specifically, the three fatalities in Afghanistan, including a minor, were registered in the provinces of Laghman and Takhar, according to the spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, Sharafat Zaman Amar, who warned that “there could be more victims, because the earthquake was very strong.

On the other hand, in Pakistan five men, two women and two children lost their lives. All of them were found in the northeastern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a Disaster Management authority told Pakistani television Geo TV.

As specified by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake was registered at 22:17 local time (16:47 GMT) on Tuesday, with an epicenter about 40 kilometers from the town of Jurm, in the northeastern province of Badakhshan. Precisely, it is an area close to the enormous Hindu Kush mountain range, which is a center of great seismic activity and the usual point of origin of telluric movements in the region.

Without going any further, at the end of last July a similar earthquake of magnitude 5.9 that struck the eastern provinces of Paktika and Khost, bordering Pakistan, caused the death of more than a thousand people and left some 1,500 injured, in addition to the destruction of hundreds of homes.

The earthquake was felt as far as Srinagar, India. AFP photo.

The country also suffered one of the largest earthquake disasters in February 1998, when two quakes of magnitude 5.9 and 6 killed some 4,000 people. A few months later, at the end of May, another earthquake of magnitude 7 shook the area again, leaving some 5,000 fatalities.

The last big earthquake in Afghanistan: more than 1,000 dead

More than 1,000 people were killed and hundreds injured in a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan on July 20, 2022. It was the worst quake in the region since 2005.

The 5.9 magnitude earthquake occurred in a remote area in the east of the country, near the border with Pakistan, where the population already lives in very precarious conditions. The earthquake fatally surprised people in their sleep. And it was felt all the way to India.

The quake was reported about 46 kilometers from the city of Khost, near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to the US agency Geological Survey. While most of the deaths were reported in Paktika province, the districts of Barmala, Ziruk, Naka and Gayan were the most affected by the quake.

Although it was reported that the earthquake had a magnitude of 5.9, the Pakistan Meteorological Department calculated that the earthquake reached 6.1.

With information from EFE and AP.

ES​

look too