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| Monday, 16 February 2004 |
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17 killed in Pakistan earthquakes ISLAMABAD, Sunday (Reuters) At least 17 people were killed and others injured on Saturday when two earthquakes struck remote mountain districts of northern Pakistan. The first tremor, measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, struck at 1030 GMT, followed by an aftershock of 5.5 magnitude at 1258 GMT, officials said. Both were felt in the capital Islamabad. State-run Pakistan Television said 20 people had been killed, but gave no breakdown of these figures.Police said 13 people died in the Battagram district, about 160 km northwest of Islamabad, when their minibus was struck by falling rocks and plunged into a ravine. "We have recovered 13 bodies so far," local police officer Adam Khan told Reuters, adding that the toll could rise. In Balakhot, in the adjoining district of Mansehra, four people were killed and 11 hurt when the tremors damaged about 200 houses. "Most of these houses were made of mud and many have been destroyed; there is panic in the area," said the local deputy superintendent of police, Iqbal Hussein. An official at Pakistan's Meteorological Department said the epicentre of the tremors was near the Kaghan valley, some 200 km northeast of the city of Peshawar, and added: "We don't expect more aftershocks." India's Meteorological Department reported a tremor measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale in northern India, but said it had no reports of damage or casualties. The border region of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India has some of the world's highest mountains and experiences periodic earthquakes. |
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