Moderate quake jolts Pakistan:official

ISLAMABAD: A moderate earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale jolted central and northern Pakistan Friday but there were no immediate reports of casualties, the meteorological office said.

Tremors lasting for a few seconds were felt at 4:49 pm (1149 GMT) in the capital Islamabad, eastern city of Lahore, northwestern city of Peshawar and several other places in parts bordering Afghanistan.

"It was a moderate earthquake," the chief of Pakistan's meteorological department, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, told AFP.

Its epicentre was located in the Hindu Kush mountain region in Afghanistan, he said, adding that there was no report of any losses.

The US Geological Survey measured it at a magnitude of 5.1 with a depth of 206 kilometres (128 miles).

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake on October 8, 2005 killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and parts of the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.