The death toll from Tuesday's 6.8 magnitude earthquake that jolted most of Pakistan, as well as neighboring India and Afghanistan, has risen to 12, officials said on Wednesday.
In Pakistan, all of the deaths were reported in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, said the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) in a statement.
Whereas the Afghan Information Ministry said, citing Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Zaman, that earthquake-related incidents across the country resulted in at least three fatalities and 44 injuries.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the magnitude 6.5 tremor had a depth of 187 kilometers and was located in Afghanistan's Jurm area of the Hindukush region.
The National Seismic Monitoring Center in Pakistan initially gave a reading of 7.7, which the Pakistan Meteorological Department revised down to 6.8.
It said the earthquake was centered in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan’s border areas.
Tremors were felt in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta, Sargodha, Mianwali, Peshawar, Kohat, Swat, Chitral, Dir, Shangla, and other districts of northeastern Punjab, southwestern Balochistan, and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, according to the National Disaster Management Authority and local media.
