Strong Quake in Pakistan Spares Southeast Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The strong earthquake in southwest Pakistan which shook Saravan and its bordering areas in southeast Iran did not cause any damage or casualties, said an Iranian Red Crescent Society official who also announced Iran’s readiness to dispatch humanitarian assistance to Pakistan.
“After dispatching relief, rescue and inspection teams of the Red Crescent to such regions as Chabahar and Saravan their reports indicated that the quake did not result in loss of life or damage in those regions,” Spokesman of Red Crescent Society’s Relief and Rescue Organization Hossein Derakhshan told Tasnim News Agency on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society Mohammad Farhadi in a message to his Pakistani counterpart Mamnoun Hossein expressed Iran’s readiness to send humanitarian aid to the affected areas.
The latest quake which struck Pakistan's thinly populated province of Balochistan on Tuesday was so strong that its tremors were felt as far away as Karachi, Hyderabad, and India's capital, Delhi.
Balochistan government spokesman Jan Buledi put the death toll at 238, with more than 200 of the deaths in Awaran town and the surrounding villages. He has warned that the death toll could rise. At least 340 people have been injured.
In the worst affected area, Awaran, around 90% of houses in the district had been destroyed, as people in the region mostly live in mud houses.
The army deployed helicopters and hundreds of soldiers to help deal with the rescue effort in the huge, earthquake-prone province of deserts and rugged mountains bordering Iran and Afghanistan, but the rough terrain is said to be hampering the rescue operation.