An earthquake shook northern Pakistan on Tuesday, destroying buildings, cracking roads, killing 30 people and injuring nearly 450 more, government and police officials said.
Photos and video carried by local media showed dozens of collapsed buildings and homes, uprooted trees and cracks in roads large enough to swallow cars in Mirpur, a town in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The magnitude 5.8 quake struck 23 kilometres north of Jhelum at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km, the United States Geological Survey reported. According to Pakistan’s Meteorological Department, the epicenter of the 5.8 magnitude quake was located near the mountainous city of Jehlum in Punjab.
The quake sent people in cities across the country running into the streets, as cars near the epicentre were wedged in between massive cracks that ripped apart roads while other vehicles were upended by the tremor. Television footage showed cars trapped in some of the cracks, as well as a bus and a truck lying on their sides at the road’s edge.
Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Tayyab, a local government official, and district police chief Irfan Saleem said 22 people were dead and nearly 300 injured.
Raja Qaiser, another deputy commissioner in the region, said rescuers were still transporting victims to hospitals in the city, where an emergency was declared.
Roads, mobile phone towers, and electricity poles in the area were badly damaged. AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan told reporters that infrastructure had been ‘destroyed’. “There are people who are stuck there and who need immediate help,” he said.
Muhammad Safdar, 60, who lives near Mirpur, said he was in his house when it suddenly started shaking. “We saw walls and the roof developing cracks and ceiling fans and other articles falling down, and we rushed out into an open field,” he said. “I have never seen such a devastating earthquake in this area in my life.”
Ramzan Ahmad, 65, who suffered a head injury and bleeding nose, said that he was with his family of seven when his house collapsed. “We all got injuries,” he said. “I saw dozens of houses razed on my way to hospital.”
“I was sitting in my shop when suddenly the walls started swaying. I knew that it is a strong earthquake. The moment I came out of my shop, its roof caved in,” one shop owner said as he stood in a street littered with debris of houses and nearby damaged shops.
Mohammad Arif, whose home was damaged in Mirpur, said when the quake hit, he started shouting to alert his family. “God saved me. God saved all of my family members, but our home was partially damaged,” he said.
Army troops with aviation and medical support teams were dispatched, Major General Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for the Pakistan Armed Forces, said in a tweet. Authorities said helicopters will also be used if needed to evacuate people from the earthquake-affected area. Pakistan Red Crescent Society volunteers were providing first aid to the injured while ambulances and food and medicine supplies had been dispatched by the PRCS National Headquarters for the quake-hit areas.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan expresses deep concern over the damage caused by the earthquake and directs all departments to provide immediate assistance,” the government said in a tweet. Mirpur, a city known for its palatial houses, has strong ties to Britain with the majority of its 450,000 residents carrying both British and Pakistani passports.
A spokeswoman at the British High Commission said they are monitoring the reports, while the US embassy offered its sympathies to those affected via Twitter.
Tremors were felt as far as New Delhi, with the Press Trust of India reporting that panicked people rushed out of their homes and offices in several places, including in Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana. “The earthquake was felt but there are no reports of any damage,” Amir Ali, from the disaster management department in Indian-held Kashmir, said.
With Indian-held Kashmir’s mobile and internet services mostly cut off after the region’s autonomy was stripped by New Delhi in early August, people used social media to express fears about not being able to get in touch with their families in the valley. “Dear @AmitShah (Home Affairs Minister) please restore mobile services in Kashmir I do not know any update since Aug 5 about my family. We are now feeling so anxious about our family in aftermath of Earthquake,” Faizan Peer tweeted.
