Balochistan earthquake: Nearly 1000 feared dead
- September 26, 2013, 6:57 pm
- Breaking News
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Quetta, Sept 26 (Online): The death toll from a devastating earthquake in Balochistan is feared to cross 1000 as soldiers and rescue workers scrambled to reach victims in country’s remotest areas, local media quoting officials and sources reported on Thursday.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is in New York, ordered officials to expedite relief efforts for victims of the country’s deadliest earthquake since 2005.
This week’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Tuesday afternoon and was felt across the country, even causing a small island to rise from the Arabian Sea. But its force was greatest in a particularly impoverished part of Balochistan Province.
Violent tremors felled hundreds of mud-walled houses in six remote districts in southwestern Balochistan, killing hundreds and injuring over 500, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
While official estimates put the death toll at 328, officials in the affected districts said that it may sour to 1000.
The greatest damage occurred in Awaran, Balochistan’s poorest district, which is near the deep-sea port of Gwadar.
The army said it was airlifting troops by helicopter to Awaran to supplement at least 1,000 troops who had been sent by truck.
The head of the National Disaster Management Authority, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Saeed Aleem, said his priority was to provide shelter to the homeless and added that supplies of medicine, blankets and water were on the way.
But, he added, the remoteness of the area was impeding relief efforts.
“We are seriously lacking medical facilities, and there is no space to treat injured people in the local hospitals,†Jan Muhammad Buledi, a provincial spokesman said.
Baluchistan was also badly hit by devastating floods that swept Pakistan in 2010, inundating about one-fifth of the country and affecting about 20 million people. About 2,000 people died in that disaster.
