Scores of houses were damaged but there were no reports of human casualties in Afghanistan today after a 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit the Hindu Kush mountains.
The earthquake struck the sparsely populated northeast of Afghanistan at 9.47pm (Irish time) last night. It was felt across nearby northern Pakistan, sparking panic in the region, where more than 73,000 people were killed in an October 8th quake.
"The reports we have indicate that some 100 houses have been damaged and between 300 and 400 cattle have been killed,"
the deputy governor of the northeastern Badakhshan province told reporters. Authorities had received no reports of any people killed or injured, he said.
Several thousand people were killed and tens of thousands of buildings destroyed when an earthquake hit Badakhshan in 1998.
Authorities in Pakistan said they had no reports of any casualties or damage on their side of the border but the quake sent frightened people out of their homes into the streets in several northern cities.
People living in apartment blocks in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, also fled from their homes, residents said.
The quake was also felt in Srinagar, the main city in India's part of the Kashmir region. About 1,300 people were killed in Indian Kashmir by the October quake.