5.1-quake rocks Pak capital; 3 killed

At least three people were killed when a 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck northern Pakistan early yesterday, officials said.

The United States Geological Survey said the tremor struck at a relatively shallow depth of 26 kilometres with its epicentre located 15 kilometres ) to the northeast of Islamabad.

An official in the northwestern town of Abbottabad, around 50 kilometres from Islamabad, said two women and a nine-year-old child were killed when their mud house collapsed.

The quake was felt in several cities in the provinces of eastern Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ghulam Rasul, a senior meteorologist at the Pakistan Meteorological Department, told AFP.