Deadly Earthquake Shakes Pakistan

A large earthquake rattled a remote mountainous region of northern Pakistan Thursday, killing at least 20 people, a government official said.

The temblor hit the Gilgit region, about 240 miles north of Peshawar, before dawn, said Jehangir Khan, an official with the Ministry of Kashmiri Affairs in Islamabad. Aftershocks rumbled through the region for several hours.

The epicenter was in the Himalayan province of Kashmir, an official of Pakistan's Meteorological Department said. He put the quake's magnitude at 5.5.

The U.S. Geologic Survey in Golden, Colorado., said the earthquake measured 5.8. It said its epicenter was 30 miles south-southeast of Gilgit, Kashmir.

Khan said the hardest-hit villages — Turbling, Mushin, Dashkin and Harchu — have a combined population of more than six thousand. The quake sent people fleeing from their crumbling houses.

"We are expecting the casualties may rise," Khan told The Associated Press. "We do not have a number for the injured."

It was the second deadly earthquake in the region this month.

At least 17 people were killed, 65 injured and four villages extensively damaged by a Nov. 3 earthquake and subsequent mudslides in the region.