Twin cities jolted at 6.2

Rawalpindi: The residents of twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad came rushing out of their homes, offices, schools and colleges completely shaken when a powerful earthquake jolted the region Wednesday afternoon.

According to Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) Director Dr. Muhammad Hanif, earthquake epicentre was the Hindu Kush region, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale with depth of 178 kilometre. He said that first earthquake of 4.9 magnitude struck Baluchistan at about 10am while the second earthquake tremors felt in most parts in Pakistan at about 12:07 pm.

Metro Bus Service (MBS) and other private transports stopped in their tracks due to strong tremors. A number of parents rushed to schools to see their children while others contacted school management through telephones.

“With the massive loss of life in 2005 earthquake still fresh in mind of people. No doubt, today’s jolt was very strong as windows, fans and other things in multi-storey apartments shook up,” Rashid Mehmood, a resident of Adiala said.

“Everybody in my office came rushing out after feeling the jolts. And they went back after sometime fearing aftershocks,” said Majid Ali, an employee of a private firm in Blue Area. Almost 73,000 people were killed in Pakistan during an earthquake of 7.6-magnitude on October 8, 2005 which left about 3.5 million people homeless.