An earthquake has shaken northern Pakistan destroying buildings, cracking roads, and killing 22 people while injuring nearly 200 more, government and police officials said.

Photos and video carried by local media showed dozens of collapsed buildings and homes, uprooted trees and cracks in roads large enough to swallow cars in Mirpur, a town on Pakistan’s side of the disputed territory of Kashmir near India.

One resident told Reuters by telephone, “We saw walls and the roof developing cracks and ceiling fans and other articles falling down, and we rushed out into an open field. I have never seen such a devastating earthquake in this area in my life.”

The magnitude 5.8 quake struck 14 miles north of Jhelum, roughly 120 km southeast of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km, the United States Geological Survey reported.

District commissioner Mohammad Tayyab, a local government official, and district police chief Irfan Saleem said 22 people were dead and nearly 200 injured.

Major General Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for the Pakistan Armed Forces, said army troops with aviation and medical support teams were dispatched.

Chief of Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, Lieutenant General Mohammad Afzal, said at a briefing in the capital Islamabad that rescue operations would take a day or two, adding that the disaster authority was distributing blankets, tents and kitchen sets to affected people.

The Pakistan government said, “Prime Minister Imran Khan expresses deep concern over the damage caused by the earthquake and directs all departments to provide immediate assistance.”

The last major earthquake in Kashmir happened in 2005, killing more than 80,000 people.

The Himalayan region is divided between India, which rules the populous Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated region around Jammu city, Pakistan, which controls a wedge of territory in the west, and China, which holds a thinly populated high-altitude area in the north.

The territory has been in dispute between India and Pakistan since partition in 1947, and the cause of two wars between the countries.

The Biblical Prophecies (Matthew 24, Luke 21) foretell that earthquakes are a sign of the Last Days revealing we are nearing the end of this age and the appearance of Jesus Christ.

These events and conditions happening now are signs pointing to the nearing fulfillment of the Last Days prophecies at the end of this age revealing it’s time to prepare for the nearing appearance of Jesus Christ for His Church by being born again spiritually into the Kingdom of God as Jesus said we must (John 3) and His Apostles who were authorized (Matthew 16:19) described how (Acts 2).

Preparing those Biblically born again into the Kingdom of God to be ready to escape all the things that will come to pass, in the wrath of the tribulation of Revelation prophecy that comes upon the world of disobedience, as the born again Church is not appointed unto wrath but instead to salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

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