5th LD Writethru: Strong earthquake jolts South Asia, 2 killed in Pakistan

A strong earthquake struck South Asia on Sunday, killing at least two people and injuring 30 others in Pakistan.

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit parts of Pakistan on Sunday afternoon, local media and officials said.

The country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province was the worst hit area where all the casualties took place due to its closeness with the epicenter which was determined in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush Mountain Range, located some 231 km north of the province, said the Pakistani met office.

The quake was felt in several Afghan provinces including the eastern Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman, northern Baghlan, Kunduz and the northeastern Takhar and Badakhshan provinces.

Residents from Indian capital New Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Pujnab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Indian-controlled Kashmir also felt the tremor.

Residents from Kabul, Islamabad, New Delhi and other quake-hit districts rushed out of their houses fearing the buildings will collapse due to tremors.

"The tremors were shocking," Mukthar Ahmad, a Srinagar resident from Indian-controlled Kashmir told Xinhua, "For a moment I thought our house will collapse and all my family members ran outside in panic raising alarm."

In Pakistan's northwestern frontier city of Peshawar, Khalid Masood, the spokesman of Lady Reading Hospital, said that the provincial government has imposed a state of emergency at the Lady Reading and other hospitals of the province to receive and give best possible medical treatment to the quake victims.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed all the civil and military departments of the federal government as well as the local governments of all the affected areas to be on high alert and quick in response to rescue and relief work.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, Sayed Abdullah Hamayon Dehqan, director of the National Disaster Management Authority in Badakhshan province, told Xinhua that the epicenter of tremor was in the mountainous Ashkashim district.

"We are collecting information about possible loss of life and property damage," Dehqan said, adding, "Luckily we have not received any report on casualties."

In India, officials were not available in the offices for the comment about loss of life or damage to structures owing to Sunday being a public holiday.

Police officials said so far there were no reports of any damage but the Metro services in Delhi were temporarily suspended due to the intensity of the earthquake.

The Hindu Kush area bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan is a seismically active area, with quakes often felt across the region. Enditem