Jurm: An earthquake struck Pakistan, Afghanistan and India on Tuesday.

Al Jazeera reported that the magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, and tremors were felt as far away as India.

The quake epicentre is 40km (25 miles) south-southeast of the Afghan town of Jurm, near the borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Rescue officials say at least two people were killed and more than 300 injured in Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Disaster management authorities are evacuating buildings damaged by the quake in Pakistan’s major cities.

Residents of Pakistan-administered Kashmir said the earthquake started moderately but grew in intensity; prompting them to rush out of their houses.

“We noticed subtle movement initially; which was followed by stronger shaking and a weird, sharp noise,” Mirza Aurangzeb Saifullah, a resident of Pakistani-administered Kashmir’s capital Muzaffarabad, told Al Jazeera.

Mr Saifullah said he rushed out of the house and found people on the street chanting prayers loudly.

“That sound triggered the trauma of the 2005 earthquake. I was terrified that the sound will increase, the jolts will keep coming back stronger and longer, but God was merciful.”

The jolts stopped soon,” Mr Saifullah said. A magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the country’s northwest in 2005 left at least 47,000 people dead.

Source– Al Jazeera

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