At least 200 people have died after a powerful magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit north-eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan.
More than 150 of the victims were reported in Pakistan, even though the quake hit on the Afghan side of the border.
The quake also rattled northern India and Tajikistan.
The death toll is expected to rise, because the most severely affected areas are very remote and communications have been cut off.
Brianna Roberts reports.
The powerful earthquake collapsed buildings and caused widespread panic.
The panic itself proved deadly for at least 12 Afghan schoolgirls, killed in the crush in a stairwell as they tried to get out of their school.
In Kabul, a news presenter on the Ariana news network was forced to duck for cover.
The earthquake was centred in Afghanistan's Badakhstan province, near the Pakistan border, but most of the deaths reported so far have come in Pakistan.
A schoolgirl in the Pakistani city of Peshawar says the quake shook buildings.
"Me and my sister was there. We were buying something. There was movement. My brother came, and he was saying, 'Sit down, sit down now.' We were sitting, and the cars were moving. And from that building, there was shouting from the buildings, and I was so scared."
The magnitude-7.5 earthquake was similar to a magnitude-7.6 earthquake in nearby Kashmir that killed more than 70,000 people in 2005.
But this one happened deeper inside the Earth, offering hope the death toll would not soar.
Strong tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi and Islamabad, and authorities in both India and Pakistan issued warnings for strong aftershocks.
Some people initially feared it was a bombing, rather than an earthquake.
This woman described the confusion in Indian-administered Kashmir.
(Translated) "We were sitting inside our house on the first floor when we first felt tremors. As the tremors became stronger, we rushed down and found people crying on the streets. For a moment, I thought this would be the end of my life."
Authorities are still working to establish the scale of the damage in remote areas.
Oxfam has an office in Badakhstan, and Melbourne-based spokeswoman Roslyn Boatman says it is feared some of the poorest areas of Afghanistan may have been hit hardest.
"In Kabul, which is more than an hour's flight away from Badakhshan, which took the brunt of this earthquake, the aftershock there was huge, and Kabul shook for about three minutes. So that's giving us an understanding of just what the earthquake could have been like up in Badakhshan, where you've got communities that are poor, shelters aren't well-built and it's quite remote. So I think indications are that this has been quite a significant earthquake."
Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif cut short his visit to Britain to fly home to deal with the emergency.
Pakistan's provincial minister, Inayatullah Khan, says a large number of deaths were recorded in the country's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province alone.
"The most affected areas (are) Malakand Division -- Chitral, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Shangla, Buner, Swat and Bajur. These are the badly and worst-affected areas, and you know that there are hilly and there are inaccessible areas, and some of the areas have been reported to ... at the moment, they are blocked, they are cut off."
The epicentre of the quake was more than 200 kilometres underground.
Earthquakes at that depth typically cause less damage than shallower quakes.
Still, the quake was even felt in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, although there were no early reports of any damage in that country.
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