Tremors in North India, Pakistan as quake rocks Afghanistan

New Delhi: An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 on the Richter scale struck central Afghanistan in the Hindu Kush region on Wednesday morning. Tremors were felt in Pakistan and as far away as in North India and the National Capital Region.

There were reports of damage and loss of life from the Lasbela district in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, where a young girl died when the roof of her house collapsed. Fifteen people have been injured.

“The Provincial Disaster Management Authority started its ground operations,” Balochistan’s Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti said.  The epicentre of the quake was 35 km south of Jurm in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan province. It occurred at a depth of nearly 190 km. There were no reports of casualties. The residents of Jurm said some houses had been damaged and a few farm animals had died.

Soon after the earthquake, a government agency issued an avalanche warning for many parts of Jammu and Kashmir for the next 24 hours. The Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment said: “Medium danger avalanche warning of level-3 exists in higher reaches of Baramulla district, and low danger warning of level-2 in Kupwara, Bandipore, Shopian and Kargil districts,” an official spokesperson was quoted as saying.

In Srinagar, a girder from an under-construction flyover crashed on a crane during the tremors following the earthquake, according to some reports. In Rajashtan, people in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Alwar, Udaipur, Bharatpur and many other cities experienced the tremors and came out of their houses and offices.