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Strong quake hits Pakistan, at least 80 killed

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-29 13:59

QUETTA, Pakistan – A strong earthquake struck southwestern Pakistan early Wednesday, killing at least 80 people and destroying hundreds of homes, officials said.

Residents of Quetta city sit outside their homes as earthquake jolt the city on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008. A government official says at least 80 people have been killed in an earthquake in southwestern Pakistan. [Agencies]

The death toll was expected to rise as reports arrived from remote areas of Baluchistan province, an impoverished area bordering Afghanistan.

"It will be much more," Sohail ur Rahman, the top civilian official in one part of Baluchistan, told Dawn News TV station.

Rahman said at least 80 people had been killed and some 500 houses had been destroyed.

Pakistan's army said it was rushing medical teams on helicopters to villages in the affected areas.

The quake struck two hours before dawn and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, the US 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. In October 2005, a magnitude-7.6 quake devastated Kashmir and northern Pakistan, killing about 80,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.