The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude-5.1 quake rocked Islamabad and elsewhere in northwest Pakistan at 2 a.m. Saturday.
The tremor was so strong that people came out of their homes and started reciting verses from the Quran.
Senior police officer Akhtar Hayat Khan said the roofs of three homes caved in because of the earthquake in a village on the outskirts of Abbottabad, killing three people. He said police did not receive any other reports about damage in the region.
Pakistan and the Himalaya region, along an active continental plate boundary, is often hit by earthquakes. In September 2013, a magnitude-7.7 quake struck Pakistan's Baluchistan province, killing at least 376 people.
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