Powerful quake rattles Afghan border
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-06 10:21

A powerful earthquake jolted the remote Hindu Kush mountains along Afghanistan's northeast border with Pakistan on Tuesday.

Amir Shahzad Warsi, an official at Pakistan's Meteorological Department in the capital, Islamabad, said the quake was "intense." Many of the villages in the region are extremely hard to get to, and assessing the damage can take time, sometimes even several days.

The temblor struck just before 2:30 a.m. (2130 GMT Monday) and had a magnitude of 6.6, the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo. said. It lasted for several seconds.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake's epicenter was 175 miles northeast of Kabul near the border with Pakistan. The area sees frequent seismic activity.

A pair of magnitude-5 earthquakes struck northwestern Pakistan on March 10 and February 22, but caused no injuries.

A magnitude 5.7 quake and nearly equally strong aftershock struck roughly the same region on Feb. 13, killing at least 24 people, triggering landslides and demolishing hundreds of homes.

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