World News for Students of English

03-11-2015 15:00

These were the scenes in Afghanistan after a powerful earthquake struck the country, leaving over 100 people dead. Tremors from the 7.5 magnitude quake also hit Pakistan, India and Tajikistan, forcing people to run from buildings in panic, and claiming numerous casualties.

In the Afghan capital Kabul, one resident described the moment of horror when the quake struck.

“I was sitting at home when the earthquake happened, and I came out of the home with children, but one of my grandsons started running. I asked him not to run, he continued and then the wall collapsed on him and he was hurt.”

The earthquake was centred in the Hindu Kush mountain range area, though scores of wounded were taken to hospitals in cities across the countries. In one of the worst incidents, at least 12 girls were killed in a stampede to get out of their school in the northeastern Afghan province of Takhar.

The death toll is expected to climb in the coming days as most communications systems were down across the region.

Difficult words: tremor (a little earthquake), casualty (a person killed or injured in an accident), resident (a person who resides – lives somewhere), scores of (large number of), stampede (a sudden rapid movement of people in response to something).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com