NYTimes:
A powerful earthquake centered in the Hindu Kush mountains of Pakistan on Saturday morning sent tremors across South Asia, flattening villages in remote northern Pakistan, killing hundreds across both sides of disputed Kashmir and shaking houses and high-rises throughout the region. The Pakistani Army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, estimated the death toll in his country to be more than 1,000. That figure is almost sure to rise once the military reaches the far-flung villages in the North-West Frontier Province, where the quake was centered.
Estimates of its magnitude varied from 6.8 to 7.8, with the United States Geological Survey putting the number at 7.6. Its epicenter was roughly 60 miles north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where aftershocks could be felt for as long as 10 minutes. Officials warned that serious aftershocks could continue for the next two days.
"The earthquake today was the biggest in the upper parts of the country in the last hundred years," Dr. Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, director general of Pakistan's Meteorological Department in Islamabad, said in a telephone interview on Saturday evening. He added, "Up till now, 20 significant aftershocks between 5 and 6.2 magnitude have been recorded."
Islamabad was in panic, and people spilled onto the streets. Traffic jams clogged roads, and residents huddled in groups outside houses, shopping plazas and government buildings. The cellphone network collapsed for at least 90 minutes.
Horrible.