Earthquake jolts Afghanistan, tremors felt in Pakistan

USGS says magnitude 6.1 earthquake hits Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region, with tremors felt in Pakistan and India.

Earthquake map USGC
The epicentre was located 265km northeast of the Afghan capital, Kabul [USGS]

An earthquake has jolted Afghanistan, with tremors felt in neighbouring Pakistan.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake late on Wednesday morning was magnitude 6.1, with a depth of 191.2km, and shook Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region. 

Tremors were felt across Afghanistan and in neighbouring countries.

The epicentre was located 265km northeast of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and 120km west of Pakistan’s Chitral in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, USGS said.

The area has seen frequent earthquakes over the last few years. 

Qudartullah Rajavi, a 24-year-old resident of Kabul, told Al Jazeera: “I was sitting in my room and suddenly everything started shaking.

“My colleague asked me to leave the building, we all ran outside and I saw my building was swinging.

“I have witnessed an earthquake like this before, about three years ago, when a lot of houses were destroyed and people were killed.”

In October 2015, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake with a similar point of epicentre hit northern Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing more than 300 people over a wide swath of mostly mountainous terrain.

Asad Hashim, an Al Jazeera reporter in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, said buildings in the city shook on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority said there were no immediate reports of damage.

“Minor jolt felt across the country, no serious losses expected,” it said in a statement.

Some social media users in the Indian capital, Delhi, also reported feeling tremors.

Source: Al Jazeera