At least 100 dead after strong quake hits Afghanistan, Pakistan

A powerful earthquake struck a remote area of Afghanistan on Oct. 26, shaking the capital Kabul and killing at least 24 people while 76 were killed in neighbouring Pakistan, officials said.

The death toll could climb in coming days because communications were down in much of the rugged Hindu Kush mountain range area where the quake was centred. 

Reports of deaths had poured in from different areas of both countries by nightfall. 

In one of the worst incidents, at least 12 girls were killed in a stampede to get out of their school in the northeastern Afghan province of Takhar. 

"They fell under the feet of other students," said Abdul Razaq Zinda, provincial head of the Afghan National Disaster Management Agency, who reported heavy damage in Takhar. 

Shockwaves were felt in northern India and in Pakistan, where hundreds of people ran out of buildings as the ground rolled beneath them. 

"We were very scared ... We saw people leaving buildings, and we were remembering our God," Pakistani journalist Zubair Khan said by telephone from the Swat Valley northwest of the capital, Islamabad. 

"I was in my car, and when I stopped my car, the car itself was shaking as if someone was pushing it back and forth." 

The quake was 213 km (132 miles) deep and centred 254 km (158 miles) northeast of Kabul in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province. 

The U.S. Geological Survey initially measured the quake's intensity at 7.7 then revised it down to 7.5. 

Just over a decade ago, a 7.6 magnitude quake in another part of northern Pakistan killed about 75,000 people. 

In Afghanistan, a total of 24 were reported dead on Oct. 26 including the 12 schoolgirls, seven people in the eastern province of...