Strong earthquake hits northern Pakistan

Friday, October 30, 2009

An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale hit Pakistan on Thursday at 23.44 local time (+18.44 UTC). The epicentre was in the Hindukush mountain range. The earthquake was mainly felt in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Muzaffarabad, Lahore, and Faisalabad.

The quake lasted approximately for twenty seconds. Many people rushed out of buildings, fearing that they would collapse, but no damage from the tremors was reported.

As the epicentre of the quake was deep in the mountains, along the border with Afghanistan, not much damage was caused. This is the second time that the region was hit by earthquake with an epicenter in the same region of Hindukush.

Last week, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck near the Afghanistan-Pakistani border.