Trócaire ‘ready to respond’ to earthquake in Pakistan

Updated 12.30pm.

Trócaire staff in Pakistan are assessing the impact of this morning’s powerful earthquake which struck Afghanistan and Pakistan and are ready to respond to the disaster. The 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the region at 2.09pm local time (9.09am Irish time).

John O’Brien, Trócaire’s Country Director in Pakistan, was in Islamabad when the earthquake struck:

“We felt the impact of the quake for almost two minutes. All our staff are safe and we have contacted our partners in the affected areas to offer support. Our partners in the affected areas tell us that over 60 people have been killed and 600 injured, although the fear is that this number will rise over the course of the day. This earthquake was as powerful as the earthquake which devastated northern Pakistan in 2005.

“The National Disaster Management Agency has warned of potential aftershocks in the coming 24 hours.  Phone networks have been badly damaged in the affected areas, which is limiting the information coming out. The situation is also complicated by the heavy snowfall the region experienced over the weekend, which had already left some areas stranded.

“We work with three partners delivering ongoing programming in the area and four additional humanitarian partners with experience of working in the area so we are ready to respond through them.”