30 dead as strong earthquake hits Pakistan remote area
Reuters 24 September 2013
Map locates Dalbandin, Pakistan, near where a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Tuesday.
QUETTA, Pakistan — A strong earthquake hit western Pakistan Tuesday, killing at least 30 people and destroying m&d houses in a thinly populated area of the South Asian country, officials and residents said.
Tremors were felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi, hundreds of miles to the east, where buildings shook, as well as the sprawling port city of Karachi in Pakistan.
The United States Geological Survey said that a 7.8 magnitude quake struck 145 miles southeast of Dalbandin in Pakistan's western province of Baluchistan.
Related: 10 costliest earthquakes in US history
In the Baluch regional capital of Quetta, officials said some areas appeared to be badly damaged.
Abdul Qadoos, deputy speaker of the Baluchistan assembly, told Reuters that 30 people and at least 30 percent of houses in the impoverished Awaran district had been destroyed.
Baluch chief secretary Babar Yaqoob said others were injured and the death toll was expected to increase. A rescue operation had begun.
The epicenter was in a remote, mountainous area of Baluchistan with no major industrial installations.
"We are trying to assess the damage," said Baluch Home Secretary Asad Gilani.
Reporting by Gul Yusufzai in Quetta, Mehreen Zahra-Malik in Islamabad and David Chance in New Delhi; writing by Maria Golovnina in Islamabad
