Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – At least eight people have died, including three children, and more than a hundred people have been injured after a 6.3 earthquake hit the border region between Pakistan and India at 4.43 pm (local time).
The Pakistan Meteorological Department placed the epicentre of the quake near Mirpur, a city in Pakistani-held Kashmir, about 23 km north of Jhelum (Punjab) at a depth of about 10 km.
The shocks were felt as far away as Delhi (picture 2), where people poured into the streets.
The Pakistani military released footage showing flattened buildings, damaged roads, panicked people.
Major General Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for the Pakistan Armed Forces, tweeted that Army troops with air and medical support teams were being dispatched.
The earthquake was felt in Pakistan’s major cities (Islamabad, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Sialkot) and in the states of northern India (Haryana, Punjab, Delhi).
Pakistan has experienced powerful earthquakes in the past. In October 2015, a 7.5 quake killed almost 400 people on the border with Afghanistan. In October 2005, another violent tremor measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale killed 73,000 people and left 3.5 million homeless.
