UPDATED
ISLAMABAD (Web-Desk); ISLAMABAD: A 5.1-magnitude earthquake rattled Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and several parts of northern Pakistan shortly after midnight on Saturday marking the second tremor in just two days. The quake, which struck at 12:10am, caused intense shaking and sent residents rushing out of their homes in panic.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department’s National Seismic Monitoring Centre (NSMC) reported that the quake originated at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers, with its epicenter located about 15 kilometers southeast of Rawat adjacent to the federal capital Islamabad.
Tremors were also felt in several nearby districts, including Attock, Swabi, and Zafarwal, as well as hilly regions like Swat, Shangla, Buner, Malakand, Mansehra, Battagram, Kohistan, and Murree. Shocks were further reported in Jhelum and various parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Fortunately, no casualties or structural damage have been reported so far.
Just a day earlier, a stronger 5.5-magnitude quake had shaken large swathes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Punjab. That tremor, which occurred at 2:03am, was traced to Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region at a depth of 114 kilometers.
Pakistan remains highly earthquake-prone, lying at the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. This year has seen frequent seismic activity, including recent jolts in Peshawar, Karachi, and multiple parts of KP.
