Hundreds Feared Dead in Pakistan Earthquake

Terrifying aftershocks rattled south-west Pakistan last night after an earthquake killed scores of people and left thousands homeless, with the death toll expected to climb.

Local officials in Baluchistan province said 170 people had been killed and 350 injured, but the Care International aid agency put the death toll at 500 to 600. Several villages were reduced to rubble. Local television showed lines of bodies, in white shrouds, laid out in the villages.

The 6.5 magnitude quake struck in the early hours of yesterday, centered about 40 miles north-east of the provincial capital Quetta. Aftershocks rippled throughout the day, including a massive tremor of 6.2 magnitude at around 5.30pm local time.

"We went to a village, Wam, where we saw mass graves being dug," said Hasan Mazumdar, Care International's Pakistan director. "Bodies were still arriving. I estimate that 200 died in that village alone.

"There was a big jolt while we were standing there. The mountains shook. Boulders came crashing down. The people were really scared. They never experienced anything like this. I spoke to a man in his early 30s, who had lost four daughters. He was just completely heartbroken."

The devastating earthquake of 2005 in northern Pakistan claimed around 73,000 lives, while Quetta was flattened in 1935 by a quake that killed 30,000.

The official death toll for yesterday's earthquake is expected to rise as more information comes in from remote areas.

The army was mobilized in a massive rescue operation, with tents and blankets flown in, but thousands had to spend the night out in the open, either because their homes had been destroyed or because they were too frightened to go back indoors. Winter is already setting in, with sub-zero temperatures during the night.

Khalil Gill, an Oxfam worker in Quetta, said: "It was very cold this morning [at 5am], we just ran out, no shoes, no jackets. There was a shock around [8am]. This evening was the strongest, the whole town was shaking. Everything shook for about two minutes. We rushed outside. Women and children were crying. We are too frightened to go back into any buildings. We are all spending the night outside."

The most devastation was in the former British hilltop resort of Ziarat and eight surrounding villages, where hundreds of mud and timber houses were destroyed, including some buried in landslides.

"There is great destruction," said Ziarat's mayor, Dilawar Kakar. "Not a single house is intact."

Ziarat is a rural part of an economically backward province. The majority of houses are made of mud, so have little resistance to earth tremors.

It is estimated that 30,000 people were affected by the earthquake, with around 15,000 made homeless.

Army helicopters flew in relief supplies but there were shortages of food, water, blankets and tents, with limited distribution of aid yesterday. Baluchistan is Pakistan's largest province but it is thinly populated. The country did not appeal for international assistance, with officials saying so far that they could manage the disaster.