At least 10 children at the Bannu’s Government Model School were injured in a stampede caused by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday, said local police official Mohammad Aslam
Taimoor Khan, a senior official at the provincial disaster management authority in Peshawar, said the quake did not cause damages to buildings, but they were still waiting for the final report from remote areas near Afghanistan.
The PMD confirmed the epicenter to be Bannu district at a depth of 12 kilometres. Tremors were also felt across Peshawar, Bannu and Dir and some parts of Punjab.
Hours after the quake, tremors rocked Afghanistan and various parts of Pakistan, sending people racing out of buildings.
The 6.2 magnitude quake struck at 1041 GMT near Afghanistan’s border with Tajikistan in the Hindu Kush mountains at a depth of 111 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said. In Peshawar, people rushed into the streets following the tremor, fearing aftershocks.
No loss of life or property has so far been reported. Aid agencies have stressed the need for greater disaster preparedness, which remains extremely susceptible to natural disasters such as floods, quakes and landslides.
The cities where the tremors were felt included the federal capital, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Bajaur Agency, Peshawar, Mardan, Hangu, Kohat, Nowshera, Swat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Chitral, Lahore, Kasur, Faisalabad, Jhang, Chiniot, Mianwali, Dera Ghazi Khan, Okara and in various districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
Published in Daily Times, May 10th 2018.
