Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




SHAKE AND BLOW
Pakistan quake death toll surges above 300
by Staff Writers
Awaran, Pakistan (AFP) Sept 25, 2013


Pakistan quake death toll nears 350
Awaran, Pakistan (AFP) Sept 26, 2013 - The death toll from a huge earthquake in southwest Pakistan this week has soared to around 350 people with more than 500 injured, officials said Thursday, among fears the toll could still rise.

The 7.7-magnitude quake hit on Tuesday afternoon in Baluchistan province's remote Awaran district -- a dirt-poor expanse of land that is roughly the size of Wales.

Besides flattening homes and affecting more than 300,000 people in six districts, according to the Baluchistan government, the earthquake also created a new island off the coast.

"At least 348 people have been confirmed dead and 513 others injured," Abdul Latif Kakar, the head of Baluchistan's Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), told AFP.

"Only in Awaran district, we have confirmed the death of 305 people, while we have received information about 43 dead from the other worst affected district, Kech," he said.

National disaster agency officials and local authorities confirmed the toll.

The army has rushed medical staff and troops to the devastated area to help with rescue efforts, along with seven tonnes of food and a tonne of medicine. Six helicopters are taking part in rescue work, the military said.

The scale of the territory involved is daunting. Baluchistan, Pakistan's least developed province, makes up about 45 percent of the country's total area, and Awaran's population is scattered over more than 21,000 square kilometres (8,000 square miles).

On top of the difficult terrain, the area is rife with separatist and Islamist militants as well as bandits.

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.

Rockets fired at Pakistan quake relief helicopter
Arawan, Pakistan (AFP) Sept 26, 2013 - Militants fired rockets at a helicoper carrying the head of Pakistan's disaster relief agency in the country's quake-hit southwest Thursday, military officials said, but no damage was done.

The helicopter with Major General Muhammad Saeed Aleem, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, on board was flying over Awaran district in Baluchistan province, the area worst hit by Tuesday's 7.7-magnitude quake.

"Two rockets were fired on the helicopter and the target was missed," a military official in the provincial capital Quetta told AFP.

"The area is rife with insurgency and has presence of Baluchistan Liberation Front insurgents."

Another military official confirmed the attack and said everyone in the helicopter was safe.

Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed province, has been struggling with a violent separatist insurgency since 2004.

The 7.7-magnitude quake which hit on Tuesday has killed nearly 350 people and made more than 100,000 homeless.

Desperate villagers in southwest Pakistan clawed through the wreckage of their ruined homes Wednesday, a day after a huge earthquake struck, killing more than 300 people and creating a new island off the coast.

The 7.7-magnitude quake hit on Tuesday afternoon in Baluchistan province's remote Awaran district -- a dirt-poor expanse of land that is roughly the size of Wales.

At least 328 people have been confirmed dead and more than 450 injured, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and the Baluchistan government.

In the village of Dalbedi, the earthquake -- Pakistan's deadliest since the devastating Kashmir quake of 2005, which killed 73,000 -- flattened some 250 houses, an AFP photographer said.

Bewildered villagers dug with their hands through the rubble of their mud houses in Dalbedi to retrieve what was left of their meagre possessions.

Their simple houses destroyed, they used rags, old clothes, sheets and branches to shelter their families from the sun.

Farmer Noor Ahmed, 45, said the strong tremors lasted for two minutes and turned buildings in the village into piles of mud.

"We have lost everything, even our food is now buried under mud and water from underground channels is now undrinkable because of excessive mud in it due to the earthquake," he told AFP.

Jan Muhammad Buledi, spokesman for the Baluchistan government, gave the death toll and told AFP it was likely to rise as rescue teams reach more villages in the area, which has been rattled by more than a dozen aftershocks.

More than 300,000 people had been affected by the quake across six districts -- Awaran, Kech, Gwadar, Panjgur, Chaghi and Khuzdar -- he said.

"People are still trapped under the rubble but it is a huge disaster and it will take time to reach and rescue all the people," he said.

PDMA official Ahmad Nawaz confirmed the death toll and said the injured numbered 498.

The authorities have prioritised finding the injured and getting them to hospital, but the task is hampered by the area's remoteness and the limited infrastructure.

They are also trying to provide tents to shelter the thousands left homeless.

"It is difficult to estimate the real magnitude of the losses because the area is very vast with small and scattered villages," said Major General Muhammad Saeed Aleem, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority.

"We will receive satellite images tonight and then we will be in a position to analyse the magnitude of the losses."

The army has rushed medical staff and troops to the devastated area to help with rescue efforts, along with seven tonnes of food and a tonne of medicine.

Some of the injured were being treated in hospital in Karachi. A man who gave his name as Hassa, from a village in Awaran, more than 250 kilometres away, described the moment the quake hit.

"My house swung to one side and then it swung another and then all of it caved in. When I regained my senses I was in Awaran hospital," said Hassa, who was later taken from there to Karachi.

"I don't know whether my children and other members of my family are alive or not."

New island emerges

The scale of the territory involved is daunting. Awaran's population is scattered over an area of more than 21,000 square kilometres (8,000 square miles).

Baluchistan makes up about 45 percent of Pakistan's area but is the country's least populated and least developed province. The area is also rife with separatist and Islamist militants as well as bandits.

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, prompting astonished locals to rush to the shore to take a look.

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. They expect the same to happen this time.

Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest province, is believed to have substantial gas and oil reserves, but it is a flashpoint for growing sectarian violence and has suffered attacks by Taliban militants.

It also faces an ongoing separatist insurgency which began in 2004 when Baluch rebels rose up to demand a greater share of profits from the province's mineral resources.

.


Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








SHAKE AND BLOW
Geologists simulate deep earthquakes in the laboratory
Riverside CA (SPX) Sep 25, 2013
More than 20 years ago, geologist Harry Green, now a distinguished professor of the graduate division at the University of California, Riverside, and colleagues discovered a high-pressure failure mechanism that they proposed then was the long-sought mechanism of very deep earthquakes (earthquakes occurring at more than 400 km depth). The result was controversial because seismologists could ... read more


SHAKE AND BLOW
Mission to moon will boost research and awareness

Mighty Eagle Improves Autonomous Landing Software With Successful Flight

Watch Out for the Harvest Moon

Chang'e-3 lunar probe sent to launch site

SHAKE AND BLOW
NASA Rover Inspects Pebbly Rocks at Martian Waypoint

Martian Life: Good or Bad?

Communications Tests Go the Distance for MAVEN

Curiosity Rover Detects No Methane On Mars

SHAKE AND BLOW
International Partnership Releases Space Exploration Benefits Paper

Iran to send second monkey into space

Voyager's departure from the heliosphere

NASA study is enough to make a person want to stay in bed

SHAKE AND BLOW
Chinese VP stresses peaceful use of space

China's space station to open for foreign peers

Last Days for Tiangong

China civilian technology satellites put into use

SHAKE AND BLOW
Station Crew Readies for Cygnus' Sunday Arrival

American, two Russians take shortcut to space

Tech glitch delays space station berthing to Saturday

Cygnus arrival at ISS delayed by at least 2 days: NASA

SHAKE AND BLOW
Arianespace and Astrium sign deal to begin production of 18 new Ariane 5 vehicles

Problems with Proton booster fixed

Decontamination continues at Baikonur after Proton abortive launc

Russia launches three communication satellites

SHAKE AND BLOW
ESA selects SSTL to design Exoplanet satellite mission

Coldest Brown Dwarfs Blur Lines between Stars and Planets

NASA-funded Program Helps Amateur Astronomers Detect Alien Worlds

Observations strongly suggest distant super-Earth has water atmosphere

SHAKE AND BLOW
Space oddity: the mystery of 2013 QW1

Domain walls as new information storage medium

Invention jet prints nanostructures with self-assembling material

New Model Should Expedite Development of Temperature-Stable Nano-Alloys




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement