(CNN) — A magnitude-7.5 earthquake struck southern Asia on Monday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter was 45 kilometers (28 miles) south-southwest of Jarm, Afghanistan, near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The agency initially reported it as magnitude 7.7.
“Reports coming of damage and injuries in north eastern Afghanistan,” Abdullah Abdullah, chief executive of Afghanistan, said in a tweet. “Disasters authorities to meet within the hour and respond to the needs.”
The USGS issued an orange alert on the quake. “Significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread. Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response,” the USGS said.
CNN teams in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan all felt strong tremors.
A USGS map showed that shaking traveled into Tajikistan as well.
The quake’s epicenter was at a depth of 213.5 kilometers (132.7 miles).
Islamabad shakes
Hundreds of miles away in Islamabad, Pakistan, CNN correspondent Sophia Saifi was standing in the kitchen when her microwave fell. She ran out of her building as it began to shake.
Minutes later, as she stood outside, the ground was still trembling.
“We can feel tremors at sporadic intervals,” she said. But people were calm, trying to make cell phone calls, while children played in the streets around them. There was no damage Saifi could see.
In Quetta, near the border with Afghanistan, there were no reports of casualties, Saifi said, but there were “structural damages.”
Pakistan’s military has been activated without waiting for formal orders, a military spokesman said in a tweet.
Quake felt in Kyrgyzstan
The earthquake was felt all the way up in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyz political activist Edil Baisalov told CNN that the shaking was “not unusual for us but quite long tremors. As far as I know no damage in Kyrgyzstan.”
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