Afghan quake leads to destruction in Tajikistan

Monday's powerful earthquake with its epicentre in Afghanistan has affected several villages in neighbouring Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan region.

However, a source in the National Emergencies Committee told TASS on Tuesday that no one had been hurt.

"Since Monday, when on the territory adjacent to Tajikistan -- in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Afghanistan -- a strong magnitude-7.5 earthquake occurred, all rescue units have been conducting round-the-clock monitoring, collecting information from outlying areas," the source said.

The committee said that they had received information on the partial damage to about 20 residential buildings, several schools and other social facilities in the settlements of Ishkashim, Roshtkala, Murghab and other villages in Badakhshan, which borders on the territory where the earthquake's epicentre was located.

Seismic stations in Tajikistan register more than 1,000 earthquakes per year, but people feel only dozens of them.

The major earthquake hit Afghanistan on Monday. The earthquake was widely felt in Pakistan and India, having killed a total of 350 people and injured 2,200 others.