At least 13 dead after earthquake jolts Afghanistan, Pakistan

At least 13 people have been killed and hundreds injured after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit areas across Afghanistan and Pakistan, with tremors felt as far as the Indian capital New Delhi.

In northwest Pakistan, at least nine people were killed and 44 injured, a government official said on Wednesday. Hospitals in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were put into a state of emergency overnight.

In Afghanistan, at least four people were killed and 50 wounded, a health ministry official told the Reuters news agency.

The earthquake’s epicentre was 40km (25 miles) southeast of the Afghan town of Jurm, near the borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said on Tuesday.

The quake was felt over an area more than 1,000km (621 miles) wide by some 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.

Pakistan’s Meteorological Department put the magnitude slightly higher at 6.8 and later reported a 3.7 magnitude aftershock in the Hindu Kush region along the country’s border with Afghanistan.

Source: AlJazeera