ISLAMABAD, Feb 1: At least 200 people were killed and hundreds injured in northern Pakistan by a severe earthquake that jolted the country and neighbouring Afghanistan early today, government officials said, reports Reuter.

Sixteen people died In remote Chitra) district bordering Afghanistan, 12 In the Bajaur area, nine In the Malakand area and 11 in Swat district, the officials said. Hundreds of houses had cither collapsed or

damaged.

The death toll was likely to mount, they said. Relief teams had been sent to the stricken areas but access to rembtc mountainous regions was difficult.

The epicenter of the quake was placed by the U.S. National Earthquake Information Center in Golden Colorado and the Indian Meteorological Service at between 112 and 190 miles (180 to 306 kilometers) northcast of Kabul, near the borders of the Soviet

Union and Pakistan.

The quake struck at 334 A.M. local time when most residents of Kabul blanketed with two feet nearly a meter of snow, were sleeping.

Men, women and children ran into the streets as the walls of some mud houses cracked, snow-laden roofs collapsed, and in some cases whole walls slipped away, witnesses said, adding that many other houses were leaking.

In the city center Soviet-built steel frame cement gov-

ernment buildings appeared to have survived intact, though tiles had crashed off some old stone houses, the witnesses said.

Cracks appeared in the street*, and residents picked their way warily over the snow for fear of falling into them, they said.

in New Delhi witnesses and residents reported similar panic with residents of high rises rushing into streets as the tremors woke them.