At least 19 people have died and hundreds were injured after an earthquake hit Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, officials said. The tremor tore through roads and shook buildings.
The city of New Mirpur was near the epicenter of the 5.8 magnitude quake, its District Inspector General of Police, Sardar Gul Faraz, said.
Faraz told reporters that 300 people were injured, and at least 19 had been killed in the quake that hit at around 4 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET).
Footage of the incident’s aftermath showed uprooted trees and cars wedged into cracks created by the earthquake.
At least 100 people are being treated at a district hospital, according to Raja Farooq Haider Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan Armed Forces spokesman, Major General Asif Ghafoor, said in a tweet that “army troops with aviation and medical support” had been dispatched to the region.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake struck at a depth of 6.2 miles.
The chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, Lieutenant General Mohammad Afzal, said the nearby Mangla Dam was unaffected by the earthquake, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.