Tremors felt in Peshawar, Mansehra, Islamabad after 5.4-magnitude quake hits eastern Afghanistan

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Tuesday said that tremors were felt in Peshawar, Mansehra and Islamabad after another earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan.

A press release from the PMD said the 5.4-magnitude earthquake occurred at 5:30pm in southeastern Afghanistan at a depth of 22 kilometres with tremors felt all the way in Peshawar, Mansehra, Islamabad, Abbottabad and Swat.

Meanwhile, the US Geological Survey reported it as a 5.2-magnitude earthquake 34 kilometres northeast of Jalalabad city in Nangarhar province.

The epicentre of the tremor was close to where a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit late Sunday night, devastating remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan.

The “quake was felt in the same areas which were affected in Kunar [province] in the first earthquake”, Ehsanullah Ehsan, the disaster management spokesman in the hard-hit province, told AFP.

“These aftershocks are constant, but they have not caused any casualties yet.”

The number of victims from Sunday’s earthquake has mounted steadily, with 1,411 people dead and 3,124 injured in Kunar alone, chief Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said today, making it one of the deadliest to hit the country in decades.

Another dozen people were killed and hundreds were injured in neighbouring Nangarhar province.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, with dwindling aid since the Taliban seized power in 2021, undermining its ability to respond to disasters.

The devastation could affect “hundreds of thousands”, said United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan Indrika Ratwatte.

The PMD earlier reported three more minor quakes in the day: a magnitude 4 in southeastern Afghanistan at 2:50pm at a depth of 97km, a magnitude 5.4 in China’s Xinjiang at 12:59pm at a depth of 10km and a magnitude 4.4 in southeastern Afghanistan at 12:25pm at a depth of 20km.

Later in the day, the PMD reported another earthquake of magnitude 3 with the epicentre 24km northeast of Pattan at a depth of 46km at 7:10pm.

Pakistan

Imran Gabol is a Lahore-based reporter for Dawn with over a decade of experience in journalism. He covers politics, climate change, human rights, education, and metropolitan affairs. He can be found on X at @gabolizm.

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