7.7 magnitude natural disaster hits south Asia

As the U.S. Geological Survey summed up the power of the natural disaster: “Significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread”.

In Pakistan, there has been at least 154 deaths, while 74 deaths have been recorded in Afghanistan’s northern provinces.

Authorities in Afghanistan were still able to estimate, however, that around 63 people were killed in the disaster and hundreds injured. The quake also reportedly caused a landslide near Pakistan’s Hunza river.

Deaths and injuries have also been reported in the Afghan provinces of Takhar, Nangarhar, Badakhshan and Kunar, with at least 82 killed in total.

The death toll is set to rise as the most severely affected areas are very remote and communications have been cut off. “We saw people leaving buildings, and we were remembering our God”, Pakistani journalist Zubair Khan said by telephone from the Swat Valley northwest of the capital, Islamabad.

At least 275 people lost their lives in Pakistan while more than 2,000 were injured.

In Afghanistan, rescuers working in the most affected areas say the communication is still down.

“This was by far the most severe quake I’ve felt in my lifetime”, Abdullah Ahmadzai, the Asia Foundation’s Afghanistan representative, said by phone from Kabul. The last major one struck the nation in March 2002 in Baghlan Province in the north, where more than 1,500 people died.

Shockwaves were felt in New Delhi in northern India and across northern Pakistan, where hundreds of people ran out of buildings as the ground rolled beneath them.

The death toll in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas is 96, with 5 killed in Punjab and 4 in PoK, the Dawn reported.

Earthquakes such as this event, with focal depths between 70 and 300 km, are commonly termed “intermediate-depth” earthquakes.

That quake was much shallower than Monday’s – 10 kilometers (6 miles) below the surface, compared with 213 kilometers (130 miles) – and thus caused greater damage, said Mohammad Hanif, an official at the Meteorological Department.

Most of the fatalities so far reported are in Pakistan with at least 214 known casualties – mostly in the northern and northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan.

In New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan and offered all possible support.

Pakistan mobilised its troops and all military hospitals have been put on high alert, army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa said, adding that specialised quake rescue machinery and army helicopters were being readied for use. In remote mountainous areas, such has Badakhshan, most Afghans live in mud houses that easily crumble during large quakes.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.