Eight dead, 100 hurt in 5.8 magnitude Pakistan quake

An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 shook northern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 100, government and police officials said.

Media photos and video showed a collapsed building and cracks in roads large enough to swallow cars in Mirpur, a town in Pakistan.

District commissioner Mohammad Tayyab said eight people were killed, including three children. District police chief Irfan Saleem said more than 100 more suffered injuries.

"I am in the hospital right now and I am being told that several of the injured people are in a critical condition," he told Reuters by phone.

Major General Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for the Pakistan Armed Forces, tweeted that army troops with aviation and medical support teams were dispatched.

The quake struck 14 miles (23 km) north of Jhelum, Pakistan, at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

Most damage was in an area between Jhelum and Mirpur, said the chief of Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority, Lieutenant General Mohammad Afzal.

Jhelum is located in northeastern Pakistan roughly 120 km southeast of Islamabad.