Islamabad, 22 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) – At least 13 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in Pakistan and Afghanistan as a strong earthquake jolted the region on Tuesday, officials in both countries said on Wednesday.

The 6.5-magnitude earthquake with the epicentre in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan hit at around 10 pm (1730 GMT), according to the US Geological Survey.

Pakistan's Metrological Department put the magnitude at 6.8 as strong tremors forced people across major cities to run out of their homes in fear.

At least nine people were killed in north-western Pakistan where more than a dozen houses collapsed due the tremor, the country’s disaster management agency said.

Nearly 50 people with injuries were brought to hospitals, the National Disaster Management Authority said in a statement.

In Afghanistan at least four people were killed, while more than 70 were wounded, said Sharafat Zaman, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Kabul.

The earthquake was felt as far as New Delhi in India and in Tajikistan in the Central Asian region, according to reports in local media.

The Hindu Kush range is prone to severe earthquakes, as it is where the Arabian, Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. In the summer of 2022, more than 1,000 people died in a huge earthquake in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Photo: EPA