Pakistan quake death toll soars into the hundreds

The toll of the dead and the wounded from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Pakistan's Balochistan province soared into the hundreds, authorities said Wednesday. The deadly, shallow 9-mile deep tremor that struck about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday was so powerful it erected a small mountain of an island in the Arabian Sea, off Pakistan's port city of Gwadar, even as it spread havoc around the epicenter in the Awaran region of the southwest province. Balochistan is the largest of Pakistan's four provinces but is not as populated as the others. The province has a large population of minority Shiite Muslims in the largely Sunni-majority country. Dawn.com quoted Pakistani Home Secretary Asad Gilan that the death toll from the quake had reached at least 208, while the number of injured rose to 350 people. Gilani was quoted as saying the quake had knocked out communication facilities and damaged roads, hampering relief efforts. The quake was felt as far away as New Delhi, capital of neighboring India. The U.S. Geological Survey had earlier warned the casualties could be large as the quake was strong enough to damage most or all buildings near the epicenter. In Quetta, capital of Balochistan, Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch, declared a state of emergency in Awaran and five nearby districts and ordered authorities in all of the province's 30 districts to remain on high alert, Dawn said. The Pakistani army and paramilitary forces were summoned to assist in the rescue and relief work along with emergency medical personnel. The report said already a large number of people, trapped under rubble and debris of fallen homes and buildings, had been rescued. "Over 80 percent mud-houses have collapsed or have been badly damaged in Awaran," provincial chief secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad told Dawn. He said authorities also had received reports of casualties and losses from several remote areas and that rescue teams were trying to reach those places. Some of the aftershocks were measured at magnitudes of up to 5.6. Awaran Deputy Commissioner Rashid Baloch said almost all houses and shops in the town and nearby villages had been destroyed or damaged. Pakistan's News International reported besides Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab provinces also were affected by the quake but the extent of any damage in those provinces was not immediately known. Seismic experts said Tuesday's quake was among the three strongest to strike the province since early 20th Century. The strongest of them measuring 8 on the Richter Scale struck Quetta in 1905, killing about 40,000 people. The Wall Street Journal quoted the U.S.G.S. that past events "with this alert level have required a national or international level response." The Journal quoted Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa that 300 soldiers were involved in rescue efforts as of Tuesday evening, with more arriving overnight. CNN, quoting a police official, said the island mass created by the quake about a mile from the coast was about 30 feet high and about 100 feet in diameter and that a large crowd had assembled to view the sight. The report quoted U.S.G.S geophysicist John Bellini that any number of factors including tides may have caused the island to emerge.