The Afghan-Pakistani border region has been shaken by a violent earthquake. Authorities of the ruling Taliban spoke in the first reports of hundreds injured and killed and dozens of houses destroyed in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika. The BBC quotes a local official as saying at least 250 have been killed and more than 150 injured.
The information from regional seismic stations on the strength initially fluctuated. Pakistani authorities gave the earthquake late Tuesday evening (local time) with a magnitude of 6.1. The US earthquake monitor (USGS) reported magnitude 5.9 and a slightly weaker aftershock. Accordingly, the center of the earthquake was around 50 kilometers southwest of the city of Khost near the border with Pakistan at a depth of around ten kilometers.
