Quake causes panic in northern town

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake shook parts of Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan early on the morning of 28 February, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).



The epicentre was in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, about 175km northeast of Kabul, USGS said. Tremors were felt in Kabul but there were no reports of fatalities of major damage.



According to the Pakistan meteorological office, the quake was also felt in Islamabad and parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), including provincial capital Peshawar and the town of Mansehra (about 100km north of Islamabad).



In Mansehra, one of the towns worst hit by an October 2005 quake that killed at least 73,000 people in parts of NWFP and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, panic caused more problems than the quake itself.



“Thousands of people came out of their houses, chanting religious verses and crying in fear. It was a frightening spectacle,” local resident Zaheer Ahmed, 30, told IRIN. “The tremors revived fears of 2005, when so many people saw tragedy.”



Khadija Bibi, another Mansehra resident, said: “My granddaughter died in her school in a village near Mansehra in 2005. I feared this morning for my six other grandchildren.”



The quake struck at 4.40am local time, when most people were asleep.



“There are no reports of any loss of life or serious injury [in Mansehra],” Azam Khan, a local police constable, told IRIN.



From villages outside Mansehra and in some parts of Swat Valley, people say cracks had appeared in the roofs of some homes - notably those made from unbaked brick. “A few bricks fell from our roof and hit one of the children sleeping in a cot below. But he has suffered only minor cuts and bruises,” said Wazir Khan, 30, from a village near the town of Nowshera in NWFP.



Some local residents associated the quake with the one that struck Chile on 27 February. “We had seen the images of devastation on TV and thought the same kind of calamity was now coming our way,” Sami Uddin, 17, said.



kh/at/ed