Quake kills 33 in Afghanistan; tremors felt in Delhi

In a reminder of the danger of building large dams across constantly moving tectonic plates, an earthquake centred near the Afghanistan capital of Kabul, and consequent flash floods in the north, killed at least 33 people on Wednesday and injured many more as as hundreds of traditional mud-brick homes collapsed.

The 6.2 magnitude quake sent tremors as far away as Delhi, and was the latest in a spate of tremors to shake Asia this month.

In Pakistan, the jolts were felt in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Peshawar, Swat, Parachanar, Muzafarabad, Mirpur and many other towns and villages.

The quake was 65 km (40 miles) deep with its epicentre some 71 km from Kabul in the eastern province of Laghman, according to the US Geological Survey.

At least 18 people were killed in adjacent Nangarhar and Kunar provinces and the death toll was expected to rise, a spokesman for the Afghan Red Crescent Society said. Some 70 people were injured in Nangarhar alone.

Hundreds of homes collapsed across Kunar and Nangarhar.

Wednesday saw steady rain across most of Afghanistan, which would have weakened the mud-brick dwellings many Afghans live in, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

The agency did not yet have its own casualty figures.

Rain also caused flash-flooding in the northern province of Balkh earlier on Wednesday, killing 15 people, provincial council member Fazel Hadidi said.

Buildings swayed in New Delhi and panicky residents ran into the street in the disputed northern region of Kashmir.

Last week, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 200 people in southwest China, a few days after another powerful tremor killed 35 people in Pakistan near the border with Iran.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies at the juncture of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.