Death toll in Balochistan earthquake jumps to 208

According to officials, the death toll has risen to 208 in a major earthquake in southwestern Pakistan. Balochistan Government spokesman said that 145 casualties have been reported in Awaran district whereas 18 people have been killed in Turbat.

The Pakistani military has sent troops and helicopters to Balochistan province s Awaran district, where the quake was centred, and the nearby area of Khuzdar. Local officials said they were sending doctors, food and 1,000 tents for people who had nowhere to sleep as strong aftershocks continued to shake the region. Most of the victims were killed when their houses collapsed, according to the chief spokesman for the country s National Disaster Management Authority, Mirza Kamran Zia, who gave the death toll. He warned that the toll might rise and said the agency was still trying to get information from the stricken area. Pakistan s chief meteorologist and the U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 7.7. Pakistani officials were investigating whether the earthquake was so powerful that it pushed up the earth and formed a new land mass. Witnesses reported seeing a small island appear off the coast of the port of Gwadar after the quake, said the director general of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Arif Mahmood. Gwadar Police Chief Pervez Umrani said people gathered on the beach to see the land mass, which was about 9 metres (30 feet) high and 100 metres (109 yards) long. Baluchistan is Pakistan s largest province but also the least populated and most impoverished. Awaran district has about 300,000 residents. Many residents are believed to be involved in smuggling fuel from Iran, while others harvest dates. The area where the quake struck is at the centre of an insurgency that Baloch separatists have been waging against the Pakistani government for years. The separatists regularly attack Pakistani troops and symbols of the state, such as infrastructure projects. A Pakistani military official speaking on customary condition of anonymity said security officials were fired on while escorting doctors to Awaran. No one was wounded. The quake was felt as far as New Delhi, the Indian capital, some 1,200 kilometres (about 740 miles) away, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported there. The quake also jolted Pakistan s largest city, Karachi, roughly 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the epicenter. People in the city s tall office buildings rushed into the streets, and Pakistani television showed lights swaying as the earth shook. Balochistan and neighbouring Iran are prone to earthquakes. A magnitude-7.8 quake centred just across the border in Iran killed at least 35 people in Pakistan last April.