Large portions of Pakistan and Afghanistan were shaken by a strong earthquake that left at least 12 people dead and more than 200 injured.
Buildings were damaged by the 6.5-magnitude earthquake, which also caused landslides and forced residents to flee into the streets.
It happened on Tuesday night and was centered in a hilly area in northern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistani border.
India was affected by the tremors coming from the isolated Jurm valley.
Nine of the verified fatalities were recorded in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa valley.
According to the spokesman for the Afghan health ministry, three more people died in Afghanistan. According to AFP, among those murdered in the Laghman province near the Pakistani border of the nation was a toddler. As the earthquake struck, several families were out of their houses celebrating Norwuz, the Persian New Year.
Relief and rescue efforts are expected to be slowed down by the affected areas’ isolation and difficult terrain.
Phone connections have been impacted, and in Pakistan, landslides have blocked the highway in the worst-affected Swat region.
Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, has requested that emergency action be taken by disaster relief organizations.
According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, tremors were detected throughout a 1,000 km area that includes India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan.
