Scores of people were feared trapped or killed on Saturday after two buildings collapsed in Pakistan's capital following a major earthquake felt across the Indian subcontinent.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.6, struck at 0350 GMT and was centered in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, about 95 km (60 miles) northeast of Islamabad.

Officials said casualties were expected in the north of the country, but it was difficult to get details because phone lines were down and mobile networks overwhelmed.

But scores of people were feared killed or trapped in two apartment blocks reduced to rubble in Islamabad.

Private television station Geo TV broadcast pictures of residents and rescue workers clambering over heaps of rubble. Officials told Reuters the two tower blocks had contained 75 apartments.

Geo TV also said 25 people had been killed in Pakistani Kashmir and four in northern Pakistan.

The quake was also felt in the Indian and Afghan capitals. A young girl was killed in eastern Afghanistan when a wall collapsed.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) situated the earthquake on its Website between Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir with a magnitude of 7.6.

It described the quake as "major", saying it took place at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). It was centred 95 km (60 miles) northeast of Islamabad and 125 km (75 miles) northwest of Srinagar.

Screaming in fear

Witnesses and Reuters correspondents could hear people screaming in fear inside their houses in Islamabad during the quake -- which lasted for about a minute -- and car and house alarms were set off by the shaking.

Minutes later sirens could be heard as the emergency services began racing through the city of close to a million people.

An aftershock of magnitude 5.9 was felt in the Pakistan capital about an hour later, causing more panic.

The situation was still tense, witnesses said, with residents listening and watching the crows -- which are believed to fall silent immediately before an earthquake.

In Lahore, closer to the epicenter, at least nine people were injured, including eight officials of the paramilitary rangers, who were caught when the roof of their office collapsed, police said.

Screaming people rushed out of apartment buildings in the Indian capital, New Delhi, as the tremors began, a Reuters reporter said.

India's science and technology minister, Kapil Sibal, said initial reports did not indicate any loss of life in India.

But witnesses and officials in Indian-controlled Kashmir said several buildings had been damaged in the northern districts of Uri, Baramullah and Kupwara. Strong tremors triggered landslides, blocking the 300-km (190-mile) Jammu-Srinagar highway.

Landslides also blocked the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, linking the Indian and Pakistani sectors of Kashmir, they said.

Several houses collapsed in the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir near the border with Pakistan. The NDTV news channel said one person had been killed and 50 injured in Baramullah district.

PHOTO CAPTION

View of collapsed housing complex after a severe earthquake jolts Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, Oct 8, 2005. (AP)