[ABC.NET.AU] A major earthquake has hit a remote part of western Pakistain, killing at least 46 people and prompting a new island to rise from the sea just off the country's southern coast.Eighty murdered in church on Sunday, a new island on Monday. Coincidence. Really.
Tremors were felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi, hundreds of kilometres to the east, where buildings shook, as well as Dubai in the Gulf and Pakistain's sprawling port city of Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
The United States Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude quake struck 235km south-east of Dalbandin in Pakistain's quake-prone province of Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, which borders Iran.
It issued a red alert, warning that heavy casualties were likely based on past data.
| Everything exciting in Pakistan causes heavy casualties. |
Television channels showed images of a stretch of rocky terrain rising above the sea level, with a crowd of bewildered people gathering on the shore to witness the rare phenomenon.
Officials said scores of mud houses were destroyed by aftershocks in the thinly populated mountainous area near the quake epicenter in Balochistan, a huge barren province of deserts and rugged mountains.
| And an island. Musn't forget the island, not after it arose from the waves like Venus and all. |
Balochistan assembly deputy speaker Abdul Qadoos said at least 30 per cent of houses in the impoverished Awaran district had caved in. He said damage to the mobile phone network was hampering communications in the area.Asad Gilani, one of the most bigwigs in the Balochistan administration, said at least 46 people had been confirmed killed and 100 injured in the quake.
Awaran police chief Rafiq Lassi added that officials feared the corpse count would rise.
The provincial government declared an emergency in Awaran and the military mobilised medical teams as well as 200 soldiers and paramilitary troops to help with the immediate relief effort.
| My neighborhood watch group can mobilize 200 to help with relief... |
"We have received reports that many homes in Awaran district have collapsed. We fear many deaths," Balochistan government front man Jan Muhammad Baledi told the ARY news channel."There are not many doctors in the area but we are trying to provide maximum facilities in the affected areas."
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.
Awaran district has an estimated population of around 300,000, scattered over an area of more than 21,000 square km.
In the regional capital of Quetta, officials said some areas appeared to be badly damaged but it was hard to assess the impact quickly because the locations were so remote.
Office workers in Pakistain's largest city Karachi rushed out of their buildings.
"My work table jerked a bit and again and I impulsively rushed outside," 28-year-old resident Noor Jabeen said.
Government worker Owais Khan said: "It was not so intense, but it was terrible."
Amjad Ali, a 45-year-old information technology worker, says whenever there is a jolt "it reminds me of the 2005 earthquake in Kashmire".
The 7.6 magnitude quake in 2005 killed at least 73,000 people and left several million homeless in one of the worst natural disasters to hit Pakistain.