Monday's massive 7.5-magnitude earthquake, which severely devastated Pakistan, has now claimed the lives of more than 300 people. As search and rescue teams combed through the rubble, the number of deaths in the deadly earthquake rose to 339, with 258 of the total coming from Pakistan and 78 coming from Afghanistan, according to The San Francisco Gate.
The powerful earthquake was centered deep beneath the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province, which borders Pakistan, Tajikistan, and China. Due to landslides caused by the tremors, three people were reported to have died in the region of Kashmir.
Pakistan, which was hit hard by the earthquake, immediately deployed search and rescue teams, together with aircraft and road clearing teams around the country. Inayatullah Khnan, the minister for Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, stated that the state of the region is quite grim, reports The International Business Times.
"The district officers in those areas have informed me there were many villages and buildings that got totally destroyed. We are trying our best to utilize every facility we have and already have sent mobile ambulances carrying every facility of a hospital towards Upper Dir," Khnan said.
As of writing, it is reported that more than 2,000 people in Pakistan have been injured by the earthquake, while 466 were reported to be wounded in Afghanistan. Due to the chaotic state of affairs in the hardest-hit areas, however, the numbers of those who are wounded and killed are still expected to rise.
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