7.3-magnitude earthquake hits Pakistan

KARACHI - A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 hit various parts of Pakistan after midnight, the country’s meteorological department has said.

Chief Meteorologist Muhammed Riaz said the tremor continued its shake for over one second, however, its span could vary from area to area, depending on their proximity to the epicentre.

The epicentre of the quake was 150 kilometres northwest of Kharan and 300 kilometers from Quetta, SAMAA TV quoted him, as saying.

Responding a question regarding aftershocks, Riaz said that a massive quake is usually followed by aftershocks- minor and major- for at least one week.

He urged the panicked people, who rushed out of their houses in Sindh areas- including Karachi- on feeling intense shakes, to go back to their houses.

According to reports, the tremors were so intense that they caused buildings to shake in Karachi.

The quake was also felt by British troops in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, where the UK Forces media team described the tremors as “very noticeable”.

“Felt like a ship moving on a choppy sea,” Sky News quoted a member of the team, as saying on Twitter.

The quake was centred near the border with Afghanistan, about 34 miles west of Dalbandin, a town in a sparsely populated area of Balochistan province.

In 2005, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale had killed about 80,000 people in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir, and left more than three million homeless. (ANI)