Kabul, Europe Brief News – At least 13 people were killed after a powerful quake hit Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday.
The 6.5 magnitude quake struck about 40 kilometers southeast of the town of Jurn in the mountainous Hindukush region, at a depth of 118 kilometers.
At least four people were killed and 50 others injured in northeast Afghanistan.
In northwest Pakistan, at least nine people were killed and 44 injured, a government official said on Wednesday.
Bilal Faizi, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Rescue 1122 service in the northwest of the country, and other officials told the Associated Press news agency that nine people were killed when roofs collapsed in various parts of northwestern Pakistan.
Dozens of houses and buildings collapsed or were heavily damaged. Tremors from the quake were felt across South Asia as far away as New Delhi, more than 2,000 kilometers from the epicenter.
The region is prone to violent seismic events. Tuesday’s quake occurred nearly a year after a 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people. Tens of thousands of people across Pakistan and Kashmir were killed by a 7.6 magnitude quake in 2005.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked the country’s disaster management officials to remain vigilant in the aftermath of the earthquake.
