The death toll in the powerful earthquake in Pakistan has risen to 208 and number of injured persons to 340. According to the US Geological Survey,the quake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale struck yesterday afternoon at a depth of 20 kilometre in the country's remote south-west province of Balochistan. Many houses were flattened and thousands of people have spent the night in the open. After the quake, a small island appeared off the coast near the port of Gwadar, witnesses reported. Gwadar Police Chief Pervez Umrani said people gathered on the beach to see the new island, which is about 9 metre high and 100 metre long.
Balochistan is Pakistan's largest but least populated province. The region is prone to earthquakes, with at least 35 people killed in a 7.8-magnitude tremor that was centred in south-eastern Iran in April.
Balochistan government spokesman Jan Buledi said helicopters were airlifting the most seriously injured to Karachi while others were being cared for in neighbouring districts. A local government official Abdul Rasheed Baluch said around 90 per cent of houses in the Awaran district had been destroyed in this earthquake.