5.3-magnitude quake hits central Pakistan

Science

5.3-magnitude quake hits central Pakistan

by AFP Staff Writers

Islamabad (AFP) June 28, 2025

A magnitude-5.3 earthquake struck central Pakistan on Sunday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the shallow quake, which USGS reported had occurred around 3:30 am (2230 GMT) with the epicentre around 60 kilometres (37 miles) north-northeast of Barkhan, a city in Pakistan’s mountainous Balochistan province.

Pakistan straddles the boundary where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet, making the country susceptible to earthquakes.

The region can be challenging to navigate during crisis situations — in 2015, a 7.5-magnitude quake in Pakistan and Afghanistan killed almost 400 people across rugged terrain that impeded relief efforts.

The country was also hit by a 7.6-magnitude quake in 2005 that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Balochistan province, Pakistan’s largest, saw a quake in 2021 that killed at least 20 people and left more than 10 injured, with landslides hampering initial rescue efforts in the remote mountainous district of Harnai.

6.1-magnitude quake hits off southern Philippines
Manila (AFP) June 28, 2025 –
A magnitude-6.1 earthquake struck deep off the coast of the southern Philippines on Saturday, the United States Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the quake, which the USGS reported occurred at a depth of 101 kilometres (63 miles) about 70 kilometres from the nearest areas of Davao Occidental province.

“The shake was not that strong, but the tables and computers here at the office shook for (about five seconds),” Marlawin Fuentes, a provincial rescuer from the tiny island of Sarangani, told AFP.

No tsunami alert was triggered.

Quakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Most are too weak to be felt by humans, but strong and destructive ones come at random with no technology available to predict when and where they might strike.

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