described as South Asia’s "worst earthquake" in recent memory Saturday, October 8, but at least 19,000 died, including Christians, in cities and villages across the Asian subcontinent.
"My wife and I felt strong tremors at about 9:25 am [local time] in New Delhi. The tremors were so strong that they shook our third floor house," Arora told BosNewsLife.
"We knew it was an earthquake of high intensity, and could be devastating. We immediately prayed for the safety of all the people, and called our relatives and friends to know if they were safe," said Arora, who covers the plight of persecuted and impoverished Christians for BosNewsLife News Agency and other media in India and throughout Asia.
"No causalities have been reported in Delhi, but a few people have lost their lives and several have sustained injuries in Jammu and Kashmir state at the India-Pakistan border," reported Arora. "Seemingly, people of all faiths, especially Muslims, were among those who lost their lives and property. The media will be able to report on the extent of the loss of lives and property only by tomorrow, Sunday, October 9," Arora warned.
TREMORS THROUGHOUT INDIA
He said that tremors were also felt in India’s Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, and Madhya Pradesh states. "The earthquake was 7.6 at the Richter scale having its epicenter near Islamabad," Arora said from the BosNewsLife New Delhi Bureau. "We pray that God would be with those who have lost their loved ones and who have been rendered homeless."
In Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan, officials were quoted as saying that in the Indian-controlled portion 157 people were killed, including 14 soldiers who perished in a landslide.
In neighboring Pakistan, government and military officials said at least 1,000 people were killed, including in the Pakistan capital Islamabad where scores of people were feared dead or trapped when two buildings collapsed. Government officials reported also collapsed buildings in Pakistan’s city of Lahore and Peshawar.
EXTENSIVE DAMAGE
The earthquake, 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep, struck at 8:50 a.m. local time 95 kilometers (60 milea) north-north east of Islamabad, which has a population of more than 500,000, and 125 kilometers west-northwest (75 miles) of Srinagar in the disputed territory of Kashmir in India, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.
"The damage and casualties could be massive and it is a national tragedy," said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the Pakistani army’s chief spokesman in a statement to reporters. "The is the worst earthquake in recent times."
"The quake was felt from New Delhi to Kabul, but early reports suggest Pakistan suffered the most damage," said Voice Of America (VOA) network reporter Benjamin Sand from Islamabad. Sand said a 10-story building in the capital, Islamabad, collapsed, and quoted witnesses as saying that "hundreds are trapped in the rubble."
FLOORS VANISHED
"The problem is this: the upper six floors are totally vanished," a witness, Mohammad Rafiq, told VOA. "I don’t think any people who were in the upper stories, they can survive." Large parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan are seismically active because underneath them, the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate, experts said.
The latest earthquake was expected to put additional strain on Christian aid workers and local churches already struggling to provide aid in the aftermath of tsunami related quakes in Asia, BosNewsLife monitored.
Meanwhile Air force and army soldiers helped civilian authorities rescue people trapped under buildings in several areas, news reports said. (MORE)
