KABUL: A powerful earthquake hit northeastern Afghanistan on Thursday, shaking buildings from the capital Kabul to Islamabad in neighbouring Pakistan. There were no reports of casualties or serious damage as of several hours after the quake, according to authorities.

The epicentre of the 6.4 magnitude earthquake was in Jurm district in the Afghan province of Badakhshan in the remote Hindu Kush region, according to the US Geological Survey. “This afternoon, Badakhshan was jolted by a strong earthquake,” Moezuddin Ahmadi, the provincial director of information and culture, told AFP over the phone.

“Based on initial information, we don’t have any reports of casualties but we are checking in the areas near the epicentre of the earthquake and we will share the final information once we have it.” The quake struck at a depth of around 200 kilometres (125 miles), just before 2:00 pm (0930 GMT) and was felt in the capital Kabul, about 300 kilometres from Jurm.

Qari Inam, a resident of Sooch in Jurm district, said the earthquake “shook the village” and “walls of a number of houses were cracked”. “Fortunately, we don’t have any casualties, but we are checking the nearby areas,” he told AFP.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In October last year, around 1,000 people were killed when a series of quakes with magnitudes measuring between 4.2 and 6.3 jolted western Afghanistan.

Months later, thousands of people are still living in tents in the affected region as winter weather sets in, with 10,000 homes destroyed, according to the UN’s refugee agency. Afghanistan’s deadliest recent earthquake killed 5,000 in 1998 in the northeastern provinces of Takhar and Badakhshan. – AFP