ISLAMABAD — A magnitude 6.5 earthquake rattled a lot of Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday, sending panicked residents fleeing from properties and places of work and horrifying individuals even in distant villages. Not less than 9 individuals died.

Greater than 100 individuals have been delivered to hospitals within the Swat valley area of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in a state of shock, Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s emergency companies advised The Related Press.

“These terrified individuals collapsed, and a few of them collapsed due to the shock of the earthquake,” he mentioned. Faizi mentioned most have been later discharged from the hospital.

Faizi and different officers mentioned 9 individuals have been killed when roofs collapsed in varied components of northwestern Pakistan. Dozens of others have been injured within the quake, which was centered in Afghanistan and likewise felt in bordering Tajikistan. The earthquake triggered landslides in a number of the mountainous areas, disrupting visitors.

Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the provincial catastrophe administration authority within the northwest, mentioned no less than 19 mudbrick properties collapsed in distant areas. “We’re nonetheless gathering knowledge in regards to the damages,” he mentioned.

The highly effective tremors despatched many individuals fleeing their properties and places of work in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, some reciting verses from the Quran, Islam’s holy e-book. Media studies advised cracks had appeared in some house buildings within the metropolis.

The scene was repeated in Kabul and different components of Afghanistan.

“The quake was so sturdy and terrifying, we thought homes are collapsing on us, individuals have been all shouting and have been shocked,” mentioned Shafiullah Azimi, a Kabul resident.

The U.S. Geological Survey mentioned the middle of the magnitude 6.5 quake was positioned 40 kilometers (25 miles) south-southeast of Jurm in Afghanistan’s mountainous Hindukush area, bordering Pakistan and Tajikistan. It mentioned the depth of the earthquake was 187.6 kilometers (116 miles).

Rakhshinda Tauseed, a doctor, mentioned she was at her hospital within the jap Pakistani metropolis of Lahore when the earthquake hit. “I shortly requested sufferers to go transfer to a safer place,” she mentioned.

Khurram Shahzad, a resident in Pakistan’s garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi, mentioned he was having dinner together with his household at a restaurant when the partitions began swaying.

“I shortly thought that it’s a massive one, and we left the restaurant and got here out,” he advised The Related Press by telephone. He mentioned he noticed a whole bunch of individuals standing on the streets.

The scenario was related in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan, the place individuals have been seen standing outdoors their properties and places of work.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a press release mentioned he requested catastrophe administration officers to stay vigilant to deal with any scenario.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the primary spokesman for the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, tweeted that the Ministry of Public Well being had ordered all well being facilities to be on standby.

The area is susceptible to violent seismic upheavals. A magnitude 7.6 quake in 2005 killed hundreds of individuals in Pakistan and Kashmir.

Final yr in southeastern Afghanistan, a 6.1 magnitude quake struck a rugged, mountainous area, flattening stone and mud-brick properties. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers put the entire dying toll from the quake at 1,150, with a whole bunch extra injured, whereas the U.N. has supplied a decrease estimate of 770.

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Related Press writers Rahim Faiez, Riaz Khan and Abdul Sattar contributed from Islamabad, Peshawar, and Quetta, Pakistan, respectively.