7.8 magnitude quake kills more than 150 in Balochistan

A major earthquake that hit southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday killed more than 150 people, the country s disaster response agency said, with fears the death toll could rise. The 7.8-magnitude quake which hit Awaran district of Balochistan province also injured at least 24 people, Brigadier Kamran Zia of the National Disaster Management Authority told AFP.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck at 4:29 pm (1129 GMT) around 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of the city of Khuzdar in Baluchistan province, at a depth of 15 kilometres. Officials said the tremors had demolished dozens of houses in Awaran district, 350 kilometres southwest of the provincial capital Quetta. The area of the epicentre is sparsely populated and most buildings are mud-built, but the US Geological Survey issued a red alert for the quake, warning that heavy casualties were likely based on past data. Top local administration official said that more than hundred bodies have been recovered and 24 people were injured in different areas of Awaran. "A large number of houses have collapsed in the area and we fear the death toll may rise," said Rafiq Lassi, police chief for Awaran district. The provincial government has declared an emergency in Awaran and the military has mobilised 200 soldiers and paramilitary troops to help with the relief effort. TV footage showed collapsed houses, caved-in roofs and people sitting in the open air outside their homes, the rubble of mud and bricks scattered around them. Tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi, while office workers in the Indian city of Ahmedabad near the border with Pakistan ran out of buildings and into the street in panic. Abdul Qudoos Bizinjo, deputy speaker of Baluchistan s assembly, told Dunya News that more than 150 were killed and there were also reports of "heavy losses" in Awaran. Damage to the mobile phone network was hampering communications in the area, he said. Awaran district has an estimated population of around 300,000. The earthquake has also created a new island into the sea some 1.5 kilometers at the Jhanda coastline in Gwadar. According to DIG Gwadar, a similar island had appeared in Hangal in the coastal area of Lasbela sixty years ago. In April a 7.8-magnitude quake centred in southeast Iran, close to the border with Baluchistan, killed 41 people and affected more than 12,000 on the Pakistan side of the border. Office workers in Pakistan s largest city Karachi rushed out of their buildings, and squatted or stood on the footpaths well away from the structures. "My work table jerked a bit and again and I impulsively rushed outside," Noor Jabeen, a 28-year woman working for an insurance company said, breathing heavily. "It was not so intense but it was terrible," said Owais Khan, who works for a provincial government office. "Whenever I feel jolts it reminds me of the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir," said Amjad Ali, 45, an IT official standing in the street. A 7.6 magnitude quake in 2005 centred in Kashmir killed at least 73,000 people and left several million homeless in one of the worst natural disasters to hit Pakistan.