An earthquake with its epicenter in northeastern Afghanistan has killed one person in neighboring Pakistan.
The political administration of Pakistan's Mohmand tribal region told Radio Mashaal December 26 that a Pakistani soldier was killed after the roof of a room collapsed at a check point near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The December 25 earthquake also injured dozens of other people in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The spokesperson of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial rescue operation, Bilal Ahmed, said that more than 60 people in the province were injured in the earthquake.
In Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, the governor's spokesman Attaullah Khogyani said on December 26 that 12 people had to be hospitalized there.
He said that included students in the provincial capital, Jalalabad, who were injured during a stampede while trying to run out of a university building during the quake.
The epicenter of the December 25 quake was in the remote Afghan province of Badakhshan, close to the Pakistani and Tajik borders.
Initial information suggested at least 45 houses were damaged in Badakhshan, where communication with remote, mountainous villages is typically slow.
The U.S. Geological Survey (usgs) said the 6.3-magnitude quake occurred at a depth of 203 kilometers. The USGS had initially reported the quake's magnitude at 6.2.
The quake struck as many people slept and was felt as far away as New Delhi.
In Kabul, residents rushed out of their homes and buildings into the winter night amid fears of aftershocks. AP reported residents of the Afghan capital stood outside their homes awaiting aftershocks, some reciting verses from the Quran
In October, a 7.5-magnitude quake ripped across Pakistan and Afghanistan, killing nearly 400 people and flattening buildings in rugged terrain that impeded relief efforts.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP
