Search for survivors
Deadly tremor creates new isle in restive region
Pakistani rescuers scramble to reach victims of a huge earthquake that killed more than 230 people and toppled thousands of mud-built homes.
AWARAN, PAKISTAN: Pakistani rescuers strived to reach victims yesterday of a huge earthquake that killed more than 230 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 dirt-poor expanse of land roughly the size of Wales.
Officials said 238 deaths had been confirmed so far, 208 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,’’ said Jan Muhammad Buledi, Baluchistan government spokesman.
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.
Mr 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.’’
Karachi’s Aga Khan hospital said they were preparing to receive injured, but none had arrived by midday.
The scale of the territory involved is daunting. Awaran’s population is scattered over an area of over 21,000 sq km.
Baluchistan makes up around 45% of Pakistan’s area but is the country’s least populated and least developed province. On top of the difficult terrain, the area is rife with separatist and Islamist militants as well as bandits.
More than 60,000 people live within 50 km 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.
Tremors were felt on Tuesday as far away as New Delhi and even Dubai in the Gulf, while people in the Indian city of Ahmedabad near the border with Pakistan ran into the streets in panic.
Tuesday’s quake caused a new island to appear close to the coastline at Gwadar, officials said, prompting astonished locals to rush to take a look.
‘‘It looked very very strange to me and also a bit scary because suddenly a huge thing has emerged from the water,’’ resident Muhammad Rustam said.
The National Institute of Oceanography has sent a team to survey the island, which stands about 20m high.
Experts said a similar small island appeared at the same place in the sea after a major quake in 1945 but disappeared after some time.
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.