Minutes-long earthquake kills dozens in Afghanistan and Pakistan

An earthquake struck South Asia Monday morning, ABC News reports, leaving dozens of people dead and hundreds more injured.

The minutes-long quake was felt in northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and areas of India, with the majority of the reported casualties coming from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghan officials have reported at least 33 deaths—including 12 students at an all-girls school in Takhar province who were killed in a stampede—and more than 200 people wounded, the Associated Press reports. At least 94 deaths have been reported by Pakistani state television along with almost 600 people wounded.

The 7.5-magnitude earthquake originated 133 miles underneath the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province. Experts believe that surface-level damage wrought by the quake was lessened due to its epicenter being so far underground.

“Being deeper helps negate the impact at the surface, because [the earthquake] has to travel further to get to the surface,” U.S. Geological Survey geo-physiologist Zachary Reeves told ABC News.