At least 43 people have reportedly been killed after a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit the Hindu Kush region of northern Pakistan and sent tremors across the country as well as through Afghanistan and India.
Government officials have confirmed 29 people have died in north western Pakistan, as the death toll continues to climb throughout the three countries.
At least 12 students at a girls' school in Afghanistan's Takhar province were killed in a stampede as they tried to get out of a shaking building, the Associate Press reported.
Another 30 girls have been taken to hospital in the provincial capital of Taluqan, said a spokesperson for the provincial governor, Sonatullah Taimor.
Buildings in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, shook for several minutes when the quake hit just before 3pm local time.
The earthquake was about 196 kilometres deep, with its epicentre nearly 82 kilometres south-east of the city of Feyzabad, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
In the Pakistani city of Peshawar, the Lady Reading Hospital has been inundated with people injured as buildings crumbled.
"We received 50 injured and more are being shifted. The injured suffered multiple injuries due to building collapse," hospital spokesman Syed Jamil Shah told Reuters.
Hundreds of people raced from buildings onto the streets in New Delhi while the quake was also felt in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, according to an AFP reporter.
Power outages have affected communication lines in Kabul as well, according to local news reports
The USGS initially reported the quake as having a magnitude of 7.7 before revising it down to 7.6 and later 7.5
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/earthquake-measuring-77-hits-india-pakistan-and-afghanistan-20151026-gkj1m2.html#ixzz3pftkjeZa
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