Earthquake jolts northern Afghan city, on casualties reported

Kabul, Feb 18 : An earthquake struck Mazar-i-Sharif city, the provincial capital of north Afghanistans Balkh province, and adjoining areas on Sunday, with no report about casualties, locals said.

As reported by Xinhua news agency the Balkh provincial police in a statement released after the quake said, "A relatively strong tremor jolted Mazar-i-Sharif city at 03:52 p.

m.local time but so far no report on loss of life and property damage has been received."

According to the U.S.seismological center, the quake measuring 5.0-magnitude at a depth of 10 km hit the Balkh province of Afghanistan.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.3 followed by several aftershocks struck west Afghanistans Herat province and adjoining areas last October, causing thousands of casualties.

int/dan