Islamabad, 20 Feb

A 5.9-magnitude earthquake on Friday struck parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab provinces in Pakistan, with tremors felt in several cities, including Peshawar and Islamabad.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The epicentre of the quake that struck at 6pm (local time) was in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush region at a depth of 101 kilometres, the Pakistan Meteorological Department said.

The tremorwas felt in different cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab, as well as in Islamabad.

Pakistan lies in a quake-prone zone due to its location along the boundary of the Arabian Sea, the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.

A 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit Balochistan province last Friday, but no loss to life or property was reported. Its epicenter was 86km northeast of Khuzdar town in the province.

The quake was preceded on the same day by another tremor of magnitude 3.8 that struck 75km southeast of Khuzdar at a depth of 33km.

The worst quake the country suffered was in 2005, which killed about 74,000 people.