Over 320 killed in earthquake
Rescuers working to reach and treat victims in remote areas
Rescuers work to reach and treat victims in Pakistan.
AWARAN: Pakistani rescuers strived to reach victims of a huge earthquake that killed more than 320 people and toppled thousands of mud-built homes when it hit the country’s southwest with enough force to create a new island off the coast.
The 7.7-magnitude quake struck on Tuesday afternoon in Baluchistan province’s Awaran district – a dirtpoor expanse of land that is roughly the size of Wales.
Officials said 328 deaths had been confirmed so far, the majority in Awaran district, and the toll is expected to rise as rescue teams reach more villages in the remote area, which has been shaken by more than a dozen aftershocks.
“A total of six districts – Awaran, Kech, Gwadar, Panjgur, Chaghi and Khuzdar – and a population of over 300,000 have been affected by the earthquake,” Jan Muhammad Buledi, spokesman for the Baluchistan government, said.
The head of the provincial disaster management agency, Abdul Latif Kakar, said 30 people had died in Kech district, a toll confirmed by a senior local official.
Buledi said teams were working to recover bodies, but the priority was to move the injured to hospitals as soon as possible – a difficult task in a desolate area with minimal infrastructure.
“We are seriously lacking medical facilities and there is no space to treat injured people in the local hospitals,” he said.
“We are trying to shift seriously injured people to Karachi through helicopters and others to the neighbouring districts.”
The army has sent 100 medical staff and 1,000 troops to the area to help with rescue efforts and has established a medical centre in one of the worst-affected villages, Tarteej.
The navy has sent a ship carrying relief supplies to Gwadar port, close to the Iranian border, and aircraft to ferry injured to Karachi and Ormara, a naval base in Baluchistan.
The scale of the territory involved is daunting. Awaran’s population is scattered over an area of more than 21,000 sq km.
Baluchistan makes up around 45% of Pakistan but is the country’s least populated and least developed province. More than 60,000 people live within 50km of the epicentre, according to the UN disaster agency, mostly in easily collapsible mud homes.
Abdul Rasheed Baluch, a senior official in Awaran, said teams had worked through the night to try to retrieve bodies and survivors from the rubble.
“Around 90% of houses in the district have been destroyed. Almost all the mud houses have collapsed,” he said.