Balochistan bears the brunt of Iranian earthquake: 34 killed: Karachi shaken by tremors

A powerful earthquake struck Sistan Balochistan on Tuesday, killing at least 34 people across the border in Pakistan and shaking buildings as far away as the Gulf and New Delhi. The quake, measured at magnitude 7.8 by the US Geological Survey, damaged hundreds of mud-built buildings in Balochistan and comes a week after another struck near Iran's Gulf port city of Bushehr, killing at least 30 people.
Crisis management authorities have declared a state of emergency in the quake-hit area, Iran's official news agency IRNA said, but so far there have been no confirmed deaths on the Iranian side. In Pakistan, the military has mobilised to help the relief effort after the quake brought down homes in the Mashkail area in Balochistan.
Two military helicopters carrying medical teams have been sent to the area, which lies just a few kilometres from the Iranian border, while paramilitary troops were being moved to supplement the relief efforts. "At least 34 people have been killed and 80 others wounded in Mashkail," a local government official told AFP. "The bodies are at the hospital and injured are being treated by army doctors. Paramilitary forces are busy in rescue work." Tremors were felt across Pakistan, shaking buildings in Islamabad and prompting many to flee into the streets of Karachi in terror.
The quake struck at 3:14 pm Iranian time (1044 GMT) with its epicentre around 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of the Iranian city of Khash, in the province of Sistan Balochistan, USGS said, at a depth of 82 kilometres. There have been conflicting reports of the precise magnitude. Iran's Seismological Centre measured it as 7.5 and gave the depth as 95 kilometres. Iran sits astride several major fault lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes, some of which have been devastating.