Islamabad: A strong earthquake struck major cities of Pakistan, including the northern areas on Monday. No casualties have been reported yet.
Tremors have been felt in major cities, including Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Kohat and Malakand.
Tremors were also felt in Kabul and New Delhi
The magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck in northeastern Afghanistan, the United States Geological Survey said.
The quake was 196 km deep and centred 82 km southeast of Feyzabad in a remote area of Afghanistan in the Hindu Kush mountain range.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department said the magnitude of the earthquake was 8.1.
Communication services have been disrupted in Islamabad. A building has also reportedly collapsed in Peshawar.
Citizens took to social media to post reports of the massive quake that lasted for up to one minute.
Pakistan and the region, along an active continental plate boundary, is often hit by earthquakes. In September 2013, a magnitude-7.7 quake struck Pakistan’s Balochistan province, killing at least 376 people. In 2005, the country was hit by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless.
