At least 21 dead as massive quake jolts south Asia

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake jolted south Asia today, killing at least 21 people and injuring hundreds of others in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.

Part of a 10-storey apartment building collapsed in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, and dozens of people are feared trapped in the rubble.

Pakistan’s private television news station, Geo, said it had received unconfirmed reports that at least 25 people had died in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir, where dozens of homes, schools, mosques and government offices were damaged.

Government officials there said more than 100 injured people had been taken to hospitals.

Indian officials confirmed 16 deaths in India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, including four in the main city of Srinagar. The dead included a nine-month-old baby. Air force and army soldiers were helping civilian authorities to rescue people trapped under buildings. Telephone lines were down across the state.

More than 200 people were injured in the area, according to official reports. Bridges had developed cracks, but traffic was passing over them.

The Himalayan territory of Kashmir is divided between rival neighbours India and Pakistan, and claimed in entirety by both. Damage was extensive on both sides of the border.

Four people died in Shangla district in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, said Bahar Karam, a relief official.

In eastern Afghanistan, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, said police official Gafar Khan.

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz directed federal and provincial officials to mobilise resources, ordered the military to extend “all-out help” to quake-hit areas and appealed to the nation to stay calm, the Information Ministry said in a statement. It described the quake as “one of the strongest to hit the country in recent years”.

“We have received news of widespread damage in Pakistan’s northern areas, Kashmir, and other parts of the country,” said Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the spokesman for Pakistan’s army.

He said troops and helicopters had been sent to earthquake-hit areas. Landslides were hindering rescue efforts in some areas.

Qaiser Abbas, a receptionist in the damaged apartment building in Islamabad, said he was sitting in his office when the building suddenly began to shake.

“After five seconds, I heard big sound, and then about 40 apartments collapsed,” he said.

He said he believed about 100 people might be trapped in the rubble. Rescue workers pulled 20 injured people from a huge pile of debris.

Police in the Pakistani city of Lahore said at least eight people were injured. The earthquake damaged part of a school in Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad, injuring at least two girls.

In Islamabad, buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute. Panicked people ran out of homes and offices in many cities. Tremors continued afterward.

The quake badly damaged one village near Balakot, a scenic town about 180 miles northeast of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, said regional police chief Ataullah Wazir. Local media reports said many homes in Balakot had collapsed.

The US Geological Survey said the quake, which struck at 8.50am local time, (4.50am Irish time), had a magnitude of 7.6 and that its epicentre was 50 miles north-northeast of Islamabad.

However, Qamarul Zaman, a meteorological official in Islamabad, said the magnitude was 7.5, and its centre was 60 miles north of Islamabad.

Residents in Kabul, the capital of neighbouring Afghanistan, felt the quake, fleeing their homes for fear they would collapse.

US military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara said the quake was felt at Bagram, the main American base in Afghanistan, but he had no reports of damage at bases around the country.

The quake also affected northern India.

“It was so strong that I saw buildings swaying. It was terrifying,” said Hari Singh, a guard in an apartment complex in the New Delhi suburb of Noida. Hundreds of residents there raced down from their apartments after their furniture started shaking.

The quake also jolted parts of Bangladesh, but no casualties or damage were reported.