At least 20 people have been killed and more than 300 injured after a magnitude 5.8 earthquake rattled Pakistan-administered Kashmir and areas in Punjab province.
Tuesday’s quake hit 22 kilometres (14 miles) north of the city of Jhelum along the boundary separating the agricultural heartland of Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the US geological agency, USGS, said.
“Right now we have confirmed the death of 20 people and about 300 people are injured. That number could increase because some people are still being brought to the hospitals,” Mirpur police chief Gul Faraz told.
Faraz said the damage was mainly limited to the area around the city of Mirpur, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, located about 85km (53 miles) southeast of the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
“Our main road that goes along the canal was badly damaged and a bridge was destroyed. People are being brought in on motorcycles from there,” he said.
Local disaster management officials told local news channel they were still gathering reports from the site of the earthquake, but had received word of damage to infrastructure.
“We have reports of cracks in the roads there,” said disaster management official Ammar Raza Shaikh.
