Moderate quake hits Afghanistan, 3 injured

KABUL): A moderate earthquake, measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale, struck the capital Kabul and some provinces overnight, injuring three people, officials said on Sunday.

The earthquake struck Afghanistan region near the Pakistani border early Sunday, US seismologists said.

Its epicentre was 207 kilometres deep, and was 140 kilometres from Khorugh in Tajikistan and 236 kilometres from Mingora in Pakistan, USGS said.

The quake was felt at 1:30am in Kabul, Badakhshan, Baghlan, Kunar, Nangarhar, and Nuristan, in Chitral district of Pakistan and Khariq of Tajikistan, head of Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA), Ahmad Shakib Hamraz, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said they had launched an investigation to ascertain whether the tremour had caused any human losses or property damage in Kabul and other provinces.

However, a resident of the 500-Family area of Khair Khana town of Kabul, Safia said two children, including her younger brother, and a neighbour were injured when they jumped through windows in panic. The injured were taken to hospital for treatment, she said.

 “My son was sick, so I stayed awoke last night. It was midnight when a quake jolted our house and all family members came out in haste,” a resident of the fourth police district in Kabul, Kamaluddin, said.

A woman in Baghlan province got her one leg broken after she ran in panic as the earthquake struck, a doctor at the Baghlan civil hospital, Mohammad Karim, said.

myn/ma

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