The earthquake struck just before 2am local time in Pakistan. I know because it woke me up. The bed started shaking. It was being moved quite violently side to side – the doors and windows rattled. It took me a second to realise what was happening. The first tremor lasted around 8 -10 seconds. As it eased, I jumped out of bed, pulled the curtains open to see nothing unusual. The lights were on across Islamabad. Then the shaking began again. Windows and doors rattled once more.
The epicentre may have been on the Afghan side of the of the Hindu Kush mountains, but the shockwaves spread out and touched many parts of Islamabad.
In Lahore worried people ran into the street. In Peshawar, the few still on the street, stopped what they were doing as the ground moved beneath them.
The strength of the ‘quake was put at somewhere between 6.1 and 6.6 on the Richter scale.
On Friday morning, Pakistan reported four dead, five injured in the quake. This hit in a very remote area. The advantage is that it is sparsely populated and so the loss and the damage may not be serious (although any death is a tragedy) but on the downside, if a remote village has been badly affected, it could be some time before we know, even longer before help can get there.
It’s not the first time I’ve been caught in an earthquake. It was certainly the strongest I’ve experienced.
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