Earthquake shakes villages in Pakistan, kills at least 10

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A moderate earthquake jolted northern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 48, many of them critically, officials said.

The magnitude-4.5 quake hit near Gilgit, about 125 miles north of Islamabad, said Chaudhry Mehmood Arif, an official in the Seismic Center in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The tremor was an aftershock from quakes Saturday that shook the town of Skardu, 75 miles southeast of Gilgit, Arif said.

Four villages, with a total population of 1,500, were most affected by the tremors, Information Minister Nisar Memon said. Several homes were destroyed, and 10 bodies found in the rubble, he said.

A series of tremors have rumbled through northern Pakistan over the past 24 hours.