People rush out their apartments and offices after they felt a major earthquake that struck Baluchistan province in southwest Pakistan on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013.QUETTA, Pakistan – Rescuers struggled Wednesday to help thousands of people injured and left homeless after their houses collapsed in a massive earthquake in southwestern Pakistan, as the death toll rose overnight to 210, officials said.
The magnitude 7.7 quake struck in the remote district of Awaran in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province on Tuesday afternoon. Such a quake is considered major, capable of widespread and heavy damage.
The quake was felt as far away as New Delhi, the Indian capital, some 1,200 kilometers (about 740 miles) away, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported there.
A provincial official, Additional Home Secretary of Baluchistan Zahid bin Maqsood, put the death toll at 210 and said 375 people had been injured, while a spokesman for the provincial government, Jan Mohammad Bulaidi, put the death toll at 216 – conflicting figures likely due to the difficulty in contacting local officials and people in the remote region.
In Pakistani cities such as Karachi along the Arabian Sea and Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, people ran into the streets in fear, praying for their lives when the quake hit.