Pakistan and Afghanistan: M 6.5 earthquake claims lives

A severe earthquake shook the Afghan-Pakistan border region on Tuesday evening, 21st March.

According to the USGS, the earthquake near the capital Islamabad had a magnitude of 6.5. The US Earthquake Observatory located the epicentre in the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan in the village of Jurm.

The German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam have said the quake occurred at a depth of around 180 kilometres.

At least nine fatalities have been confirmed in Pakistan and four in Afghanistan so far, with over 200 injured. Several houses and roads were damaged too.

The tremors were also felt over a 1000 km area spanning other countries including India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.

In the Hindu Kush region and in neighbouring countries where the Arabian, Indian and Eurasian plates meet, severe earthquakes occur time and again.

In the summer of 2022, a devastating quake in the same border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan killed more than 1000 people.