Earthquake jolts most of KP

PESHAWAR: An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the open-ended Richter scale was felt in most parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Friday night but there were no reports yet of any human and material losses.

The tremors occurred at 10.02 pm and caused fear among the people in Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, North Waziristan, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, and other districts of the province. The earthquake was quite severe and many people came out of their houses despite the cold weather to avoid harm.

The seismological centre said the epicentre of the earthquake was in Murghab in Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan. Its depth was 80 kms and the tremor was recorded at 6.4 on the Richter scale.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said its control room had not received any information about human losses anywhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Its director general said they were in touch with the district administrations in the province and was seeking latest information about any losses as a result of the earthquake. He said the PDMA’s control room was fully functional to get updates. Getting information from the remote, mostly mountainous areas in the province takes time.