A powerful earthquake in Pakistan on Thursday, October 7, has damaged buildings and infrastructure resulting in the death of not less than 20 people, British public broadcaster BBC reports.
In the night to Thursday, the Pakistan’s south-western Balochistan province was hit, according to the US Geological Survey, by a 5.9 magnitude quake that struck at a shallow depth of 9km. Shallow quakes can inflict more damage above ground.
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Over a 100 mud houses have collapsed and a large number of buildings were damaged, leaving hundreds of people homeless, a local official told the Reuters news agency. As injured people in the provincial capital Quetta were rushed to hospitals, authorities warned the death toll may increase, and that many people were killed, when building structures collapsed.
Much of the damage appears to have affected the Harnai district of Balochistan province, officials noted. Harnai, which is located east of the provincial capital Quetta, has a large number of coal mines that could collapse during quakes, BBC reports.
Pakistan shaken by powerful earthquake
