Quake Hits Pakistan, Killing 10

A moderate earthquake jolted northern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 48, many of them critically, officials said.

The magnitude 4.5 quake hit near Gilgit, about 125 miles northeast of Islamabad, the capital, said Chaudhry Mehmood Arif, an official at the seismic center in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The tremor was an aftershock from quakes Saturday that shook the town of Skardu, 75 miles southeast of Gilgit, Arif said.

Four villages, with a total population of 1,500, were most affected by the tremors, officials said.

Several homes were destroyed, and 10 bodies were found in the rubble, they said.

However, the remoteness of the region made it difficult to quickly assess the full extent of the damage.

The Pakistani military removed many of the injured by helicopter after landslides blocked the only road leading to the quake site.

Emergency personnel were sent to the area to try to provide temporary shelter for those whose homes were destroyed.

The temblors also damaged a portion of the highway that runs the length of Pakistan and into China.