Pak earthquake kills two, injures 85

Two people were killed while at least 85 others were injured across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Gilgit-Baltistan when an earthquake shook parts of Pakistan on Friday night.

The two killed included a soldier from Mohmand tribal region and a woman from Ghizer.

Assistant Political Agent in Ghalanai Haseebur Rehman Khalil told Dawn that the injured sepoy had been taken to the Mamad Gat Hospital.

In Gilgit-Baltistan, an expecting mother was killed and her husband and two children, aged two and four years, were injured when their house collapsed in Phander area of Ghizer district.

According to Pakistan Metrological Department, earthquake measuring about 6.9 Ritcher scale originated at 12:14 am at a depth of 197 kilometres along the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border.

An official said the tremors lasted around 50 seconds. Two minor aftershocks were also recorded on Saturday morning.

Local people retrieved the body from the rubble and took the injured to a government hospital.

According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Disaster Management Authority's spokesman Latifur Rehman at least 48 people had been injured in Peshawar, eight each in Hangu and Mardan and 27 in Swat district.

In Swat, eight women and a child were among the 27 people reported injured in the earthquake.