Quake kills 45 in Pakistan, creates new island in sea

[spaminator]

Quake kills 45 in Pakistan, creates new island in sea
Gul Yusufzai, Reuters
First posted: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 10:26 AM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 03:03 PM EDT
QUETTA, Pakistan - A major earthquake hit a remote part of western Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 45 people and prompting a new island to rise from the sea just off the country's southern coast.
Tremors were felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi, hundreds of miles (kilometres) to the east, where buildings shook, as well as the sprawling port city of Karachi in Pakistan.
The United States Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude quake struck 145 miles (235 km) southeast of Dalbandin in Pakistan's quake-prone province of Baluchistan, which borders Iran.
The earthquake was so powerful that it caused the seabed to rise and create a small, mountain-like island about 600 metres off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea.
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 Baluchistan, a huge barren province of deserts and rugged mountains.
Abdul Qadoos, deputy speaker of the Baluchistan assembly, told Reuters that at least 30% of houses in the impoverished Awaran district had caved in.
The local deputy commissioner in Awaran, Abdul Rasheed Gogazai, and the spokesman of Pakistan's Frontier Corps involved in the rescue effort said at least 45 people had been killed.
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.
Chief secretary Babar Yaqoob said earlier that 25 people had been injured and that the death toll was expected to increase as many people appeared to be trapped inside their collapsed homes.
Local television reported that helicopters carrying relief supplies had been dispatched to the affected area. The army said it had deployed 200 troops to help deal with the disaster.
Quake kills 45 in Pakistan, creates new island in sea | World | News | Toronto Sun

 

[B00Mer]

Anyone dare to move to the island an build a new home...???

Next earthquake they will be back to the bottom of the sea... maybe.

But as human nature goes..someone will move to the island and live there..

 

[spaminator]

Pakistan quake death toll climbs to 327, creates new island
Gul Yusufzai, Reuters

First posted: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 10:26 AM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 10:46 AM EDT
QUETTA, Pakistan - The death toll from a powerful earthquake in southwest Pakistan rose to 327 on Wednesday after hundreds of mud houses collapsed on residents throughout the remote and thinly populated area, local officials said.
Pakistan's army airlifted hundreds of soldiers to help with the aftermath of the worst earthquake in the South Asian country since 2005, when about 75,000 people were killed in the country's north.
Tuesday's earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck Baluchistan, a huge earthquake-prone province of deserts and rugged mountains, and was felt across South Asia.
It destroyed houses and cut communications with the worst affected district of Awaran, and was so powerful it caused a small island to emerge from the Arabian Sea, just off the Pakistani coast.
"Two hundred and eighty-five bodies have so far been recovered in the Awaran district," Abdul Rasheed Gogazai, the deputy commissioner of Awaran, the worst affected town, with a population of about 200,000, told Reuters.
"And 42 bodies were found in the neighbouring Kech district. We have started to bury the dead."
The spokesman of the government's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Kamran Zia, put the death toll at 259 by early Wednesday evening.
Rescue teams found it hard to reach the remote location quickly, and some officials said the death toll was likely to rise as emergency workers fanned further into the mountains to assess the damage.
Mohammad Shabir, a journalist, described scenes of grief and chaos in villages, saying survivors were digging rows of graves and picking through the debris.
"As far as the human eye can see, all the houses here have been flattened," he told Reuters from Awaran, adding that rescue teams were distributing supplies.
The earthquake struck Pakistan at a time when the country was still mourning the deaths of more than 80 Christians in a suicide bomb attack on an Anglican church in the city of Peshawar on Sunday.
To the south, on the beach near Gwadar port, crowds of bewildered residents gathered to witness the rare phenomenon of an island that the quake thrust up out of the sea.
The island would not survive long because sea waves would eventually break it down, the NDMA spokesman said. "This is not a permanent structure, just a body of mud," he added. "It will disappear over time."
Pakistan quake death toll climbs to 327, creates new island | World | News | Toronto Sun

New island in Pakistan following earthquake
First posted: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 01:36 PM EDT
New island in Pakistan following earthquake | World | News | Toronto Sun