- Title: CCTV captures shocking moment quake hits Pakistani Kashmir, rescue efforts start
- Date: 24th September 2019
- Summary: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (SEPTEMBER 24, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** CHAIRMAN OF PAKISTAN'S NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, LIEUTENANT GENERAL MOHAMMAD AFZAL, ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE AFZAL SEATED FOR NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) CHAIRMAN OF PAKISTAN'S NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, LIEUTENANT GENERAL MOHAMMAD AFZAL, SAYING: "Pakistan army's search and rescue team has already left (for affected area). Pakistani soldiers from Mangla and Jhelum cantonments have reached there and have started reaching there." JOURNALISTS DURING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) CHAIRMAN OF PAKISTAN'S NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, LIEUTENANT GENERAL MOHAMMAD AFZAL, SAYING: "At the moment, district administration teams, the teams of SDMA, which is State Disaster Management Authority, our teams are present in the area. God willing, I will visit the area tomorrow myself. I will examine the area and if there is any necessary information, I will share it with you." JOURNALISTS DURING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) CHAIRMAN OF PAKISTAN'S NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, LIEUTENANT GENERAL MOHAMMAD AFZAL, SAYING: "From the NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority), our vehicles are being loaded with 200 tents, about 800 blankets, around 200 kitchen sets and about 100 medical kits that will be dispatched to affected people tonight, God willing." JOURNALISTS DURING NEWS CONFERENCE AFZAL LEAVING
- Embargoed: 8th October 2019 19:49
- Keywords: Pakistan earthquake
- Location: MIRPUR, AZAD PAKISTAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR AND ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
- City: MIRPUR, AZAD PAKISTAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR AND ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
- Country: Pakistan
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Earthquakes/Volcanoes/Tsunami
- Reuters ID: LVA002AY0R29Z
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: CCTV footage shows the moment an earthquake shook northern Pakistan on Tuesday (September 24), destroying buildings, cracking roads, killing 22 people and injuring nearly 200 more according to government and police officials.
Local Pakistani TV showed footage of the moment the quake strikes, leaving people running out of buildings and narrowly escaping as it collapses just behind them.
Local media showed images of collapsed buildings and homes, uprooted trees and cracks in roads large enough to swallow cars in Mirpur, a town on Pakistan's side of the disputed territory of Kashmir near India.
The magnitude 5.8 quake struck 14 miles (23 km) north of Jhelum, roughly 120 km southeast of Pakistan's capital Islamabad, at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km, the United States Geological Survey reported.
Further away from the earthquake zone, the chief of Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority, Lieutenant General Mohammad Afzal, said at a briefing in the capital Islamabad that he could confirm 10 deaths.
Army troops with aviation and medical support teams were dispatched, Major General Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for the Pakistan Armed Forces, said in a tweet. Rescue operations would take a day or two, Afzal said, adding that the disaster authority was distributing blankets, tents and kitchen sets to affected people.
The last major earthquake in Kashmir happened in 2005, killing more than 80,000 people.
The Himalayan region is divided between India, which rules the populous Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated region around Jammu city, Pakistan, which controls a wedge of territory in the west, and China, which holds a thinly populated high-altitude area in the north.
The territory has been in dispute between India and Pakistan since partition in 1947, and the cause of two wars between the countries.
(Production: Salman, Waseem Sattar, Shahabuddin Shahab) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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