7.5 magnitude earthquake hits Hindu Kush in Afghanistan
 A massive earthquake of 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, with the epicentre in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, rocked the northern Indian subcontinent around 2:45 pm on Monday. The US Geological Survey said the epicentre was 45 km south-southwest of Jarm in Afghanistan, around 240 km from the capital Kabul. It put the intensity at 7.7 on the Richter scale. The Pakistani met department put the intensity even higher -- at 8.1. In Jammu and Kashmir phone lines went down after extremely strong tremors hit the state. The quake also affected telecom services in Delhi and neighbouring regions as hundreds of thousands of people began telephoning one another.The Delhi metro has been halted. In the National Capital Region, tremors lasted for as long as 7 minutes. The tremors jolted the whole of northern India including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Everywhere, tens of thousands of people fled out of their homes and high-rise buildings. The Pakistani media said the quake was felt in all major cities including Islamabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi. Earlier this month, an earthquake of magnitude 3.0 on the Richter scale struck the National Capital Region, on October 9; the epicenter was the Delhi-NCR region, said a report on the Indian Meteorological Department website. |
