Some citizens after leaving a restaurant, shortly after feeling the earthquake, this Tuesday in Lahore (Pakistan). AKHTAR SOOMRO (REUTERS)
An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 has shaken various parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India on Tuesday, according to the United States Center for Geological Studies (USGS, for its acronym in English).
The Reuters news agency reports that the earthquake has been felt in Kabul, Islamabad and New Dehli, the respective capitals of the three most affected countries.
At least two people have died in Afghanistan and a teenage girl has died in Pakistan, according to authorities.
The earthquake occurred at 9:17 p.m. local time (5:47 p.m. in mainland Spain), with the epicenter in northeast Afghanistan, near the city of Jorm, in the province of Badakhshan, near the Hindu Kush mountain range, according to the USGS. .
The depth of the earthquake has been 194 kilometers.
"People ran out with the Koran in their hands," reported a journalist from the AFP agency, which is located in the city of Rawalpindi (2.1 million inhabitants), in the Pakistani province of Punjab.
A 13-year-old girl died in the Pakistani district of Swat, after a wall from her house fell on her.
On the other hand, police authorities from the same district informed Reuters that at least 34 people have been injured in this area in the north of the country.
Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for Afghanistan's disaster mitigation ministry, said two people have died in the eastern Lagman province.
The Afghan Ministry of Health has ordered all medical centers to remain on alert.
However, the earthquake caused slight damage to some houses in the province of Tahar, bordering Badajshan, according to what the area's disaster management director, Mohammad Kamgar, told Efe.
A Red Cross spokesman explained that there is hardly any information about the situation in Badakhshan, but that review work is being carried out in other areas.
Mahzudeen Ahmadi, head of the area's information department, told Reuters they were also surveying the province for those affected, but had no information yet regarding casualties.
"We felt a strong earthquake, according to preliminary information the main (affected) place was Yamgan district (in Badkhshan province)," he explained.
Notable quake, preliminary info: M 6.5 - 40 km SSE of Jurm, Afghanistan https://t.co/wxZ5D1GFQs
— USGS Earthquakes (@USGS_Quakes) March 21, 2023
The Afghan Hindu Kush area is a point of great seismic activity and origin of telluric movements in the region.
At the end of last June, a similar earthquake of magnitude 5.9 in the eastern provinces of Paktika and Khost, bordering Pakistan, caused the death of more than a thousand people and injured some 1,500, in addition to the destruction of hundreds of houses.
Last year's was the deadliest quake in the region for almost 20 years.
The country also suffered a catastrophe in 1998, in the north of the country, when in February two earthquakes of magnitude 5.9 and 6 caused the death of some 4,000 people.
A few months later, at the end of May, another magnitude 7 earthquake struck the area again, causing some 5,000 deaths.
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