Earthquake of 6.1 Magnitude Strikes Afghanistan

International Desk: An earthquake has jolted Afghanistan, with tremors felt in neighbouring Pakistan.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake late on Wednesday morning was magnitude 6.1, with a depth of 191.2km, and shook Afghanistan's Hindu Kush region.

Tremors were felt across Afghanistan and in neighbouring countries.

The epicentre was located 265km northeast of the Afghan capital, Kabul and 120km west of Pakistan's Chitral in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, USGS said.

The area has seen frequent earthquakes over the last few years.

Qudartullah Rajavi, a 24-year-old resident of Kabul, told Al Jazeera: "I was sitting in my room and suddenly everything started shaking.

"My mother asked me to leave the building, we all ran outside and I saw my building was swinging.

"I have witnessed an earthquake like this before, about three years ago, when a lot of houses were destroyed and people were killed."

In October 2015, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake with a similar point of epicentre hit northern Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing more than 300 people over a wide swath of mostly mountainous terrain.

Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/Jan 31, 2018/Nasim