ISLAMABAD/KABUL: An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing at least 280 people, officials said, adding that hundreds were injured and the death toll was likely to rise as information from distant mountain villages arrived.
The earthquake hit about 44 kilometres (27 miles) from the city of Khost, near the Pakistani border, at a depth of 51 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey.
“Strong and long jolts,” a Kabul resident reported on the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre’s website (EMSC).
“It was strong,” said a resident of Peshawar, a city in northwestern Pakistan.
According to the EMSC, approximately 119 million people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India experienced shaking.
Photographs in Afghan media showed houses in ruins.
