Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — A strong quake shook a wide area of South and Central Asia on Sunday, killing at least one person, injuring several more, damaging buildings in the Afghan capital and sending people scrambling into the streets in five countries.
The late afternoon quake Sunday was felt in parts of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. At least a dozen people were hospitalized with injuries and 26 houses in the capital of Kabul were badly damaged or destroyed, Kabul television reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., measured the quake at magnitude 7.2 — enough to cause severe damage.
Pakistani and Indian seismologists measured it at 6.7. The USGS said the epicenter was about 150 miles northeast of Kabul in the Hindu Kush mountains.
In the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, six high school girls were injured when part of the first floor of stairs of the Alaei High School collapsed, local officials and witnesses said.
In war-shattered Kabul, residents of poor neighborhoods of mud, brick and wood homes fled into the streets with their children.
"The earthquake started slowly and got heavier and heavier. Then the wall crashed down," said Mohammed Khalil, a Kabul resident.
Bruce Presgrave, a geophysicist at the USGS, said that although the quake was big, the earthquake was also deep, and those "tend to cause less damage."
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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