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QUETTA. — Eight people were confirmed killed and many more deaths were feared after a major earthquake hit southwest Pakistan yesterday, demolishing houses and sending people running into the streets in panic.
The 7,7-magnitude quake struck at 4:29pm around 100 kilometres 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 Akbar Haripal told AFP that eight 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.
“We have received reports that many homes in Awaran district have been collapsed.
“We fear many deaths,” Jan Muhammad Baledi, a spokesman for the Baluchistan government, said on the ARY news channel.
“There are not many doctors in the area but we are trying to provide maximum facilities in the affected areas.”
Television 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 TV there were 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.
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.
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. — AFP.
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