A moderate earthquake shook the Pakistani capital and two cities in the northwest on Tuesday, but there were no reports of any casualties or damage, an official said.

The magnitude 5.4 quake occurred at 1652 GMT and was centered in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan, 300 km north of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, said Mohammed Akram, an official at the seismological center in Peshawar.

The quake was felt in Islamabad, Peshawar and Chitral, an isolated city north of Peshawar on the Pakistani side of the Hindu Kush mountain range.

Moderate earthquakes are often felt in Pakistan and many are often centered in the Hindu Kush mountains that straddle both Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan.