Afghanistan earthquake: 311 dead and thousands injured after 7.5-magnitude tremors in Pakistan and India

Twelve Afghan school girls were killed as they attempted to evacuate a shaking building

At least 311 people have died and thousands have been injured in a 7.5-magnitude earthquake felt across south Asia, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.

Twelve of the victims were Afghan schoolgirls, killed in a stampede as they attempted to evacuate a shaking building.

Pakistan experienced the most fatalities where 237 people died, according to officials. 74 people died in Afghanistan.

More than 2,000 people were injured in Pakistan during the tremor, which also damaged 2,500 homes, officials said.

In Afghanistan, a spokesman for the Public Health Ministry said around 457 people had been injured, according to numbers gathered from hospitals in the country’s different provinces, and more than 1,500 homes have been destroyed or partially destroyed.

Casualties and the extent of the damage from the earthquake, which shook buildings for around 45 seconds in some areas early on Monday afternoon, are still being assessed, according to Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority.

Badakhshan's Governor, Shah Waliullah Adeeb, said death tolls and casualty figures are likely to “rise by the end of the day, once the survey teams get to the remote areas and villages."

Rescuers struggled to reach the hardest-hit areas, particular those near the earthquake's epicentre, 45 miles south of Fayzabad, the capital of Badakhshan province in Afghanistan.

An injured boy rests at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan AP (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Mr Adeeb said helicopters have been used to reach remote villages, with landslides and falling rocks making roads inaccessible.

Food and other essentials are ready to be sent out, Mr Adeeb said, but “getting there is not easy”.

People rush an injured woman to a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan AP (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Pakistani army spokesman, Lt. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, said Pakistani helicopters and military planes are being used to transport relief supplies and military engineers are working to restore communications.

The military are also distributing food and blankets to people in the remote and inaccessible north-western region, where the majority of casualties have been reported.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, was expected to visit the earthquake hit areas later today, after returning from an official visit to the United States.

An Afghan man clears rubble from a damaged house in Kabul, Afghanistan AP (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Pakistan has said it will not issue any international appeals for help as the country has adequate resources to carry out rescue and relief work.

In Srinagar, residents told the Indian Express they saw the buildings “swinging”, reminding them of the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir which left over 75,000 people dead.

In April this year, Nepal also experienced its worst earthquake on record which left over 9,000 people killed and around 900,000 homes damaged or destroyed.

Additional reporting by Associated Press