Dozen schoolgirls among 100 dead as 7.7 magnitude quake shakes Afghanistan

Scores of people have been killed after an earthquake of 7.5 magnitude struck Afghanistan, say officials, with the effects felt hundreds of miles away. In the Afghan city of Taloqan, 12 schoolgirls were reported to have been killed in a stampede while trying to escape from shaking buildings. The United States Geological Survey said the epicentre was south of Feyzabad in northern Afghanistan, in a remote part of the Hindu Kush near the Tajikistan and Pakistan borders. But the impact was experienced as far away as New Delhi, Islamabad and Lahore, say witnesses.

I was praying when the massive earthquake rattled my home. I came out in a panic.

Munir Anwar, a resident of Liaquat Pur in the eastern Punjab

By 5pm local time (12.30pm UK time), Pakistani officials said they had been told of 62 deaths from the quake. Hundreds more may have been injured but most of those affected live some way from communications so precise figures will take some time to emerge. The Times of India reported that strong tremors were felt across New Delhi and the national capital region at around 2.45pm local time (9.15am UK time). Residents in Kashmir, where electricity and phone lines are apparently down, told ANI news that it was “terrifying”.

Science quake