A moderate earthquake shook the Indian occupied Kashmir region and towns of Pakistan on Friday, causing a few casualties but no major damage, officials and media reports said. The epicentre of the earthquake, which struck at 8:49am, was 95 kilometres north-east of the capital city Islamabad, Meteorological Department chief Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry said.
The jolts were felt in several cities and parts of Azad Jammu Kashmir where at least 10 schoolchildren were injured in wall collapse incidents. Aaj news channel said two girls fractured their ankles when they jumped from the first floor of their school in the region, which was devastated in a major October 2005 earthquake that killed at least 73,000 people and left around 3.5 million others homeless.
Friday's earthquake rocked the occupied Kashmir valley in India as well, triggering panic among residents, IANS news agency reported. "The earthquake measured 5.5 on the Richter scale," TK Jotshi, assistant director of the weather office in occupied Srinagar, was quoted as saying by IANS news agency.
"Its epicentre was near the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir," he said. "I was in my bedroom when the bed started rocking. I ran out of my home in panic," Bashir Ahmed, a doctor living in the outskirts of Jammu and Kashmir capital occupied Srinagar, said after Friday's quake.
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