At least 250 dead in earthquake

In the Afghan-Pakistani border region, there were violent tremors on Tuesday evening. The search for the victims continues.

The last major earthquake occurred in Badghis province in early January. At least 26 people were killed.

Mashal / Imago

Reuters/dpa/nel. According to official figures, at least 280 people died in a violent earthquake late Tuesday evening (local time) in the Afghan-Pakistani border region. Most of the confirmed deaths were in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province, where 255 people were killed and more than 200 injured, said Interior Ministry official Salahuddin Ayubi. In Khost province, 25 people were killed and 90 taken to hospitals, he said.

“The death toll is likely to increase as some of the villages are in remote areas in the mountains and it will take time to gather details,” Ayubi said. The authorities had launched a rescue operation and helicopters would be used to reach the injured and transport medical supplies and food.

The information from regional seismic stations on the strength initially fluctuated. Pakistani authorities gave the earthquake late Tuesday evening (local time) with a magnitude of 6.1. The American Seismological Survey (USGS) reported magnitude 5.9 and a slightly weaker aftershock. Accordingly, the center of the earthquake was around 50 kilometers southwest of the city of Khost near the border with Pakistan at a depth of around ten kilometers.

According to Pakistani information, the tremors were felt in large parts of the country, in the capital Islamabad and even in Lahore in the east of the country. According to the civil protection authority, local emergency services tried to gain access to the affected remote mountainous region. The Pakistani side initially gave no information on damage and casualties.

A spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry said any help from international organizations would be welcomed. Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate, the so-called Indian Plate, is pushing north on the Eurasian Plate. In 2015, Afghanistan’s remote north-east was hit by an earthquake, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan.

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