More than 40 dead in SW Pakistan quake
- Thread starter ejaz007
- Start date
KARACHI (updated on: October 29, 2008, 14:58 PST): Rescuers have pulled 160 bodies from the rubble of hundreds of mud-walled homes in Balochistan province after a powerful earthquake hit the area on Wednesday, a district government official said. The US Geological Survey said a 6.4 magnitude quake hit 60 km (40 miles) northeast of the provincial capital, Quetta. Pakistan's Meteorological Department put the magnitude at 6.5 and said the quake struck at 5.10 a.m. (2310 GMT).
Many people were believed to be buried under rubble, officials said.
The epicentre of Wednesday's quake was near the scenic valley of Ziarat, one of the main tourist spots in Balochistan.
"Our rescuers are still working but we've recovered 160 bodies from various villages in Ziarat," said the district's chief administrator, Dilawar Khan.
The quake injured scores of people and triggered landslides that destroyed about 1,500 houses and blocked roads. Rescuers were still trying to reach some remote places in mountains above the Ziarat valley, where many people were believed to be buried.
Ziarat district has a population of about 50,000.
The army had sent helicopters and a medical team and paramilitary troops were also helping with the rescue, the military said.
Another senior official in Ziarat, Sohail-ur-Rehman, said authorities were scrambling to help about 12,000 homeless people and to bury the dead.
"Graves are being dug with excavators as we can't keep dead bodies in the open," Rehman said.
PANIC
Five people had been killed in neighbouring Pishin district, to the north of Quetta, district government officials said.
"We were fast asleep when the tremor struck. We grabbed the children and ran outside. The earth continued shaking for more than a minute," said Habibullah, a resident of Pishin.
He said no one had been hurt in his neighbourhood, which was being hit by aftershocks.
The head of a national disaster management team, Farooq Ahmed Khan, said about 300 rescue workers had reached Ziarat. Tents, blankets and clothing were being flown in.
Officials and hospital staff said scores of people had been injured, most when houses collapsed or in the panic when people rushed from their homes.
The Meteorological Department said two tremors had struck before dawn, the second one bigger than the first.
Quetta resident Amjad Hussain said there had been panic in the city.
"There were two tremors, the second one was serious and people rushed out of their houses," Hussain said.
In 1935, about 30,000 people were killed and Quetta was largely destroyed by a severe earthquake.
Large parts of south Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate, known as the Indian plate, is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.
Baluchistan is Pakistan's largest province but its most thinly populated. It has the country's biggest reserves of natural gas but there were no reports of damage to gas facilities.
Raquib
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2008
- Messages
- 895
- Reaction score
- 0
Pakistani quake leaves 150 dead, 15,000 homeless
By SATTAR KAKAR, Associated Press Writer Sattar Kakar, Associated Press Writer 21 mins ago
QUETTA, Pakistan A strong earthquake struck before dawn Wednesday in impoverished southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 150 people, and turning thousands of homes of mud and timber homes into rubble.
With some roads blocked by landslides, officials said army helicopters were ferrying hundreds of troops and medical teams to villages in the quake zone and had set up a field hospital in Quetta, the Baluchistan provincial capital, 50 miles from the epicenter.
Officials said they were distributing thousands of tents, blankets and food packages and sending in earth-moving equipment to dig mass graves for those killed in the magnitude 6.4 quake. Many of those who survived were left with little more than the clothes they had slept in, and with winter approaching, temperatures were expected to drop to around freezing in coming nights in the region bordering Afghanistan.
A magnitude 6.2 quake struck Wednesday evening, but appeared to cause little damage.
The worst-hit area from the first quake appeared to be Ziarat, where hundreds of mostly mud and timber houses were destroyed in five villages, Mayor Dilawar Kakar said. Some homes were buried in a landslide triggered by the quake, he said.
"Not a single house is intact," Kakar told Express News television.
Maulana Abdul Samad, the minister for forests in Baluchistan, said at least 150 people were confirmed to have died. Kakar said hundreds of people have been injured and some 15,000 were homeless.
"I would like to appeal to the whole world for help. We need food, we need medicine. People need warm clothes, blankets because it is cold here," Kakar said.
In the village of Sohi, a reporter for AP Television News saw the bodies of 17 people killed in one collapsed house and 12 from another. Distraught residents were digging a mass grave.
"We can't dig separate graves for each of them, as the number of deaths is high and still people are searching in the rubble" of many other homes, said Shamsullah Khan, a village elder.
Other survivors sat stunned in the open.
Hospitals in the nearby town of Kawas and Quetta were flooded with the dead and injured.
One patient in Quetta Civil Hospital, Raz Mohammed, said he was awoken by the sound of his children crying before he felt a jolt.
"I rushed toward them but the roof of my own room collapsed and the main iron support hit me," he said. "That thing broke my back and I am in severe pain but thank God my children and relatives are safe."
The quake struck two hours before dawn and had a magnitude of 6.4, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It was a shallow 10 miles below the surface and was centered about 400 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistan is prone to violent seismic upheavals. Wednesday's quake was the deadliest since a magnitude-7.6 quake devastated Kashmir and northern Pakistan in October 2005, killing about 80,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
Officials said the area hit on Wednesday was much less densely populated.
Baluchistan is home to a long-running separatist movement, but is not considered a major battleground in the fight against Taliban insurgents that plague other border regions.
____
Associated Press writer Mattiullah Achakzai in Quetta and APTN cameraman Abdul Rahman in Sohi contributed to this report.
Pakistani quake leaves 150 dead, 15,000 homeless - Yahoo! News
By SATTAR KAKAR, Associated Press Writer Sattar Kakar, Associated Press Writer 21 mins ago
QUETTA, Pakistan A strong earthquake struck before dawn Wednesday in impoverished southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 150 people, and turning thousands of homes of mud and timber homes into rubble.
With some roads blocked by landslides, officials said army helicopters were ferrying hundreds of troops and medical teams to villages in the quake zone and had set up a field hospital in Quetta, the Baluchistan provincial capital, 50 miles from the epicenter.
Officials said they were distributing thousands of tents, blankets and food packages and sending in earth-moving equipment to dig mass graves for those killed in the magnitude 6.4 quake. Many of those who survived were left with little more than the clothes they had slept in, and with winter approaching, temperatures were expected to drop to around freezing in coming nights in the region bordering Afghanistan.
A magnitude 6.2 quake struck Wednesday evening, but appeared to cause little damage.
The worst-hit area from the first quake appeared to be Ziarat, where hundreds of mostly mud and timber houses were destroyed in five villages, Mayor Dilawar Kakar said. Some homes were buried in a landslide triggered by the quake, he said.
"Not a single house is intact," Kakar told Express News television.
Maulana Abdul Samad, the minister for forests in Baluchistan, said at least 150 people were confirmed to have died. Kakar said hundreds of people have been injured and some 15,000 were homeless.
"I would like to appeal to the whole world for help. We need food, we need medicine. People need warm clothes, blankets because it is cold here," Kakar said.
In the village of Sohi, a reporter for AP Television News saw the bodies of 17 people killed in one collapsed house and 12 from another. Distraught residents were digging a mass grave.
"We can't dig separate graves for each of them, as the number of deaths is high and still people are searching in the rubble" of many other homes, said Shamsullah Khan, a village elder.
Other survivors sat stunned in the open.
Hospitals in the nearby town of Kawas and Quetta were flooded with the dead and injured.
One patient in Quetta Civil Hospital, Raz Mohammed, said he was awoken by the sound of his children crying before he felt a jolt.
"I rushed toward them but the roof of my own room collapsed and the main iron support hit me," he said. "That thing broke my back and I am in severe pain but thank God my children and relatives are safe."
The quake struck two hours before dawn and had a magnitude of 6.4, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It was a shallow 10 miles below the surface and was centered about 400 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistan is prone to violent seismic upheavals. Wednesday's quake was the deadliest since a magnitude-7.6 quake devastated Kashmir and northern Pakistan in October 2005, killing about 80,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
Officials said the area hit on Wednesday was much less densely populated.
Baluchistan is home to a long-running separatist movement, but is not considered a major battleground in the fight against Taliban insurgents that plague other border regions.
____
Associated Press writer Mattiullah Achakzai in Quetta and APTN cameraman Abdul Rahman in Sohi contributed to this report.
Pakistani quake leaves 150 dead, 15,000 homeless - Yahoo! News
Flintlock
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2007
- Messages
- 6,176
- Reaction score
- 0
Sad Day 
.
Sometimes I cannot believe that after thousands of years of floods and earthquakes, we don't know how to deal with them.
Some exceptions are there of course, like Japan, where earthquakes happen very often so people have built earthquake-proof houses for thousands of years.
. Sometimes I cannot believe that after thousands of years of floods and earthquakes, we don't know how to deal with them.
Some exceptions are there of course, like Japan, where earthquakes happen very often so people have built earthquake-proof houses for thousands of years.
Black Stone
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2007
- Messages
- 1,344
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
- Location
Hope the damage is kept to a minimum. RIP for the dead.
Raquib
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2008
- Messages
- 895
- Reaction score
- 0
Quake in remote Pakistan border region kills 170
By ASHRAF KHAN, Associated Press Writer Ashraf Khan, Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 3 mins ago
ZIARAT, Pakistan A strong earthquake struck before dawn Wednesday in impoverished southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 170 people and turning mud and timber homes into rubble.
An estimated 15,000 people were left homeless, and rescuers were digging for survivors in a remote valley in Baluchistan, the remote province bordering Afghanistan where the magnitude 6.4 quake struck.
Officials said they were distributing thousands of tents, blankets and food packages and sending in earth-moving equipment to dig mass graves. Many of those who survived were left with little more than the clothes they had slept in, and with winter approaching, temperatures were expected to drop to around freezing in coming nights.
Worst-hit was the former British hilltop resort of Ziarat and about eight surrounding villages, where hundreds of houses were destroyed, including some buried in landslides triggered by the quake.
"There is great destruction," said Ziarat Mayor Dilawar Kakar. "Not a single house is intact."
Aftershocks rattled the area throughout the day, including one estimated at magnitude 6.2 in the late afternoon. There were no reports of additional casualties or damage.
Kakar said the death toll from the quake was 170, with 375 injured. Around 15,000 people lost their homes, he said.
Kakar appealed to "the whole world" for help, but the head of Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority said an international relief effort would not likely be necessary.
In the village of Sohi, a reporter for AP Television News saw the bodies of 17 people killed in one collapsed house and 12 from another. Distraught residents were digging a mass grave in which to bury them.
"We can't dig separate graves for each of them, as the number of deaths is high and still people are searching in the rubble" of many other homes, said Shamsullah Khan, a village elder.
Other survivors sat stunned in the open.
Hospitals in the nearby town of Kawas and the provincial capital Quetta, 50 miles away, were flooded with the dead and injured. One patient, Raz Mohammed, said he was awoken by the sound of his children crying before he felt a jolt.
"I rushed toward them but the roof of my own room collapsed and the main iron support hit me," he told an AP reporter in Quetta Civil Hospital. "That thing broke my back and I am in severe pain but thank God my children and relatives are safe."
Farooq Ahmad Khan, head of the disaster authority, said 2,000 houses were destroyed and that teams were scrambling to erect shelters for 2,500 to 3,000 people.
The main quake struck at 5:10 a.m. local time and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It was a shallow 10 miles below the surface and was centered about 400 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistan is prone to violent seismic upheavals. Wednesday's quake was the deadliest since a magnitude-7.6 quake devastated Kashmir and northern Pakistan in October 2005, killing about 80,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
A temblor of magnitude 7.5 that hit Quetta in 1935 killed more than 30,000 people.
Baluchistan is home to a long-running separatist movement, but is not considered a major battleground in the fight against Taliban insurgents that plague other border regions.
Ziarat, a hilltop resort ringed with juniper forests, has long attracted summer visitors. British officials retreated there from Quetta when the area was part of British India. Pakistanis flock to the former residence of Pakistan's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and the shrine of a revered saint.
___
Associated Press writer Mattiullah Achakzai in Quetta and APTN cameraman Abdul Rahman in Sohi contributed to this report.
Quake in remote Pakistan border region kills 170 - Yahoo! News
By ASHRAF KHAN, Associated Press Writer Ashraf Khan, Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 3 mins ago
ZIARAT, Pakistan A strong earthquake struck before dawn Wednesday in impoverished southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 170 people and turning mud and timber homes into rubble.
An estimated 15,000 people were left homeless, and rescuers were digging for survivors in a remote valley in Baluchistan, the remote province bordering Afghanistan where the magnitude 6.4 quake struck.
Officials said they were distributing thousands of tents, blankets and food packages and sending in earth-moving equipment to dig mass graves. Many of those who survived were left with little more than the clothes they had slept in, and with winter approaching, temperatures were expected to drop to around freezing in coming nights.
Worst-hit was the former British hilltop resort of Ziarat and about eight surrounding villages, where hundreds of houses were destroyed, including some buried in landslides triggered by the quake.
"There is great destruction," said Ziarat Mayor Dilawar Kakar. "Not a single house is intact."
Aftershocks rattled the area throughout the day, including one estimated at magnitude 6.2 in the late afternoon. There were no reports of additional casualties or damage.
Kakar said the death toll from the quake was 170, with 375 injured. Around 15,000 people lost their homes, he said.
Kakar appealed to "the whole world" for help, but the head of Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority said an international relief effort would not likely be necessary.
In the village of Sohi, a reporter for AP Television News saw the bodies of 17 people killed in one collapsed house and 12 from another. Distraught residents were digging a mass grave in which to bury them.
"We can't dig separate graves for each of them, as the number of deaths is high and still people are searching in the rubble" of many other homes, said Shamsullah Khan, a village elder.
Other survivors sat stunned in the open.
Hospitals in the nearby town of Kawas and the provincial capital Quetta, 50 miles away, were flooded with the dead and injured. One patient, Raz Mohammed, said he was awoken by the sound of his children crying before he felt a jolt.
"I rushed toward them but the roof of my own room collapsed and the main iron support hit me," he told an AP reporter in Quetta Civil Hospital. "That thing broke my back and I am in severe pain but thank God my children and relatives are safe."
Farooq Ahmad Khan, head of the disaster authority, said 2,000 houses were destroyed and that teams were scrambling to erect shelters for 2,500 to 3,000 people.
The main quake struck at 5:10 a.m. local time and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It was a shallow 10 miles below the surface and was centered about 400 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistan is prone to violent seismic upheavals. Wednesday's quake was the deadliest since a magnitude-7.6 quake devastated Kashmir and northern Pakistan in October 2005, killing about 80,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
A temblor of magnitude 7.5 that hit Quetta in 1935 killed more than 30,000 people.
Baluchistan is home to a long-running separatist movement, but is not considered a major battleground in the fight against Taliban insurgents that plague other border regions.
Ziarat, a hilltop resort ringed with juniper forests, has long attracted summer visitors. British officials retreated there from Quetta when the area was part of British India. Pakistanis flock to the former residence of Pakistan's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and the shrine of a revered saint.
___
Associated Press writer Mattiullah Achakzai in Quetta and APTN cameraman Abdul Rahman in Sohi contributed to this report.
Quake in remote Pakistan border region kills 170 - Yahoo! News
IceCold
PDF VETERAN
- Joined
- May 1, 2007
- Messages
- 19,236
- Reaction score
- 10
- Country
- Location
Aik to phela humera masla khatam nahi hota upper sa yah kudirity affat. Sometimes i wonder what is god really thinking and what does it has in mind for us after all no matter how corrupt we morally are, still we are muslims and yet we suffer the most.
Goodperson
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2005
- Messages
- 2,860
- Reaction score
- 0
India offers relief assistance to quake-hit Pakistan
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, October 29, 2008
Expressing grief over the death of at least 160 people in a massive earthquake in Balochistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday wrote to his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani and offered India's assistance in relief work.
I am deeply grieved to hear of the earthquake that struck Baluchistan causing widespread loss of life and property, Manmohan Singh said in the letter to Gilani.
On behalf of the people of India, I express our sincere condolences to the families of those who have perished in this natural calamity, the prime minister said.
The government of India stands ready to offer all possible assistance that you may require to provide relief to the people affected by this tragedy, the prime minister stressed.
A powerful earthquake jolted Balochistan, Pakistan's southwestern province, leaving at least 160 dead and hundreds injured.
The 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, and several districts of the province between 4.30 a.m. and 5.10 a.m. Wednesday, causing massive destruction across the province.
India had also extended a helping hand to Pakistan in relief work in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that killed thousands in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in October 2005.
India offers relief assistance to quake-hit Pakistan- Hindustan Times
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, October 29, 2008
Expressing grief over the death of at least 160 people in a massive earthquake in Balochistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday wrote to his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani and offered India's assistance in relief work.
I am deeply grieved to hear of the earthquake that struck Baluchistan causing widespread loss of life and property, Manmohan Singh said in the letter to Gilani.
On behalf of the people of India, I express our sincere condolences to the families of those who have perished in this natural calamity, the prime minister said.
The government of India stands ready to offer all possible assistance that you may require to provide relief to the people affected by this tragedy, the prime minister stressed.
A powerful earthquake jolted Balochistan, Pakistan's southwestern province, leaving at least 160 dead and hundreds injured.
The 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, and several districts of the province between 4.30 a.m. and 5.10 a.m. Wednesday, causing massive destruction across the province.
India had also extended a helping hand to Pakistan in relief work in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that killed thousands in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in October 2005.
India offers relief assistance to quake-hit Pakistan- Hindustan Times
dr.umer
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 1,460
- Reaction score
- 0
WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (APP): The U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will provide an initial $1 million in assistance through international and non‑governmental organizations to help meet the immediate needs of those affected by the earthquake in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.
We extend our deepest sympathies to the government and people of Pakistan, said USAID Administrator Henrietta H. Fore.
USAID is continuing to monitor the situation and is prepared to provide additional assistance if needed, he said, according to a news release.
The U.S. government is working alongside the Pakistani government and the international community to assess the damage. These assessments will help determine if additional U.S. assistance will be necessary.
This emergency assistance is in addition to the over $2 billion the U.S. has provided for development programs in Pakistan to improve health, education, economic growth, democratic governance and to reconstruct areas affected by the October 2005 earthquake.
dr.umer
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 1,460
- Reaction score
- 0
BEIJING, Oct 30 (APP): Chinese President Hu Jintao has sent a message of sympathy to his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari over a major earthquake that hit Pakistans Balochistan province on Wednesday. Hu said in the message that he was shocked upon hearing the news of the earthquake and felt pain over the great casualties and property loss in Pakistan.
The Chinese people are very sympathetic to the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan, as they themselves are still recovering from a magnitude-8 quake that rocked Chinas Sichuan province in May, Hu said.
The Chinese president extended his condolences to the victims and expressed the belief that the Pakistani people will overcome the difficulties and rebuild their homeland.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also sent sympathy messages to their Pakistani counterparts on the same day.
The Chinese people are very sympathetic to the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan, as they themselves are still recovering from a magnitude-8 quake that rocked Chinas Sichuan province in May, Hu said.
The Chinese president extended his condolences to the victims and expressed the belief that the Pakistani people will overcome the difficulties and rebuild their homeland.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also sent sympathy messages to their Pakistani counterparts on the same day.
Flintlock
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2007
- Messages
- 6,176
- Reaction score
- 0
Icecold my friend, the world does not work like that. Whether you are killed in an earthquake is purely a matter of chance and luck. No matter how much you pray or how well you follow the tenets of your religion, if the walls of your home decide to collapse on your unlucky day, there is very little that can save you.
The only thing we can do to protect ourselves from earthquakes is in the realm of science - build earthquake-proof homes and learn to predict earthquakes better.
dr.umer
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 1,460
- Reaction score
- 0
There is no such thing as earthquake (EQ) proof home or building.
You can only increase structural strength of building as well as design can be improved but that could only reduce damage when EQ comes but will not eliminate "loss factor".
A really powerful EQ is going to cause damage no matter what.
Similar threads
