Tuesday’s earthquake that jolted multiple cities across Pakistan, including the capital Islamabad, left residents with a sense of dread they had not felt before.

“In my 36 years of living, I’ve never felt such a massive earthquake,” a resident of Swat told Aaj News.

A man in Peshawar was so frightened that he left his family, two wives, seven sons and five daughters sleeping and just ran out of the house to save himself.

“I just thought of saving myself, I thought how could I wake them all up,” he said.

Jolts were felt earlier this year as well, soon after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. However, no lives were lost at that time.

The earthquake on Tuesday took nine lives and left over 100 injured in upper KP alone. The reading on the Richter Scale, initially speculated to be 7.7, was actually 6.8.

The Swat resident told Aaj News that the tremors began slowly but gradually built up to a massive quake. The whole incident lasted for about one to two minutes.

Women, children and old people were screaming as they exited their houses to get into an open space.

A resident from Peshawar echoed the same sentiment.

“At first, I thought it would pass quickly, but 10 to 12 seconds later the shaking became massive,” he said. “It was the biggest earthquake I have ever felt.”

Another resident, who is a shopkeeper, said, “Things were shaking around in the shop so we ran outside. But outside, even electricity poles and wires were shaking.”

“We were afraid the poles would fall on us, everyone was saying astaghfaar.”

Another Peshawar resident said that people in the city sleep by 10pm, which is around the time when the earthquake struck. When he got outside, he found children crying.

One man who spoke to Aaj News was praying in a mosque when he felt the ground trembling.

“I was afraid of course, but I finished my prayer before walking outside,” he said. He also found many other men standing outside. He then tried to call his family, but there was no cellular signal.

Over in Malakand Division, five people were confirmed to have perished, including a 13-year-old girl and 263 others were said to have been injured.

Of the 193 people brought to hospitals, 93 had no injuries but had fainted from fear. Over 20 houses were damaged in Malakand.