World

Earthquake Kills at Least 15 in Pakistan

At least 15 people were killed after an earthquake hit Pakistan early on Thursday, according to disaster officials and local news reports.

The quake struck after 3 a.m. local time and had a magnitude of 5.7, according to the United States Geological Survey, which said it had a depth of6.2 miles.

The center of the earthquake was about 13 miles northeast of Harnai, in Balochistan Province. It was about 60 miles from Quetta, the provincial capital that is near the Afghan border.

A deputy commissioner for Harnai told local reporters that at least 50 people had been injured. Officials expected the toll to rise. The dead were mostly women and children, rescue officials said.

More than 100 mud houses collapsed and others were left damaged, including government buildings, Reuters reported. Hundreds of people were left homeless, Sohail Anwar, deputy commissioner in the city of Harnai, told Reuters.

Video footage showed injured people being treated while lying on stretchers in the street.

Pakistan lies in an area noted for high seismic activity. A 5.6-magnitude earthquake rocked several cities in northern Pakistan and parts of the Kashmir region under its control, leaving at least 22 people dead and more than 700 wounded. In 2013, a quake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale struck a remote area of western Pakistan, killing at least 80. A 6.5-magnitude earthquake jolted parts of the southwest in 2008, leaving at least 150 people dead and hundreds more injured.

Among the most major quakes to hit the country was one in 2005, when a 7.8-magnitude temblor killed more than 75,000 people in a northern region. A 7.7-magnitude earthquake also hit Quetta in 1935, killing 30,000 to 60,000 people.

Related Articles

Back to top button