Earthquake hits southwestern Pakistan
by Zuzana Zelenakova
The earthquake of 6,4 magnitude struck Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday night killing at least 160 people. Hundreds of others were injured and approximately 15,000 local inhabitants lost their homes. Some houses were destroyed during the earthquake and others collapsed in the following landslides. The area that was hit probably the hardest is Ziarat, where mostly mud and timber houses were destroyed. "I would like to appeal to the whole world for help. We need food, we need medicine. People need warm clothes, blankets because it is cold here," said Mayor Dilawar Kakar. Convoys with relief material are streaming into the area, but it is quite difficult to get a whole picture of the casualties as the region´s population is scarce and local infrastructure is not very dense. The army was involved as well transporting medical teams and also relief material including thousands of tents and blankets on four helicopters to the damaged area, because many roads are blocked due to landslides. Help had still not come to many affected areas. Authorities are currently trying to deal with burying the dead as soon as possible. "Graves are being dug with excavators as we can't keep dead bodies in the open," said a senior official from Ziarat, Sohail-ur-Rehman. "We can't dig separate graves for each of them, as the number of deaths is high and still people are searching in the rubble," said elder Shamsullah Khan from village of Sohi. The earthquake was also felt in Quetta. "There were two tremors, the second one was serious and people rushed out of their houses," said local resident Amjad Hussain. More than seventy years ago the town was almost completely destroyed in an earthquake killing about 30,000 people. The latest serious quake struck the north-west of the country in October 2005 with 73,000 dead.
related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081029/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_quake;_ylt=AneOBDotGPsyujjFgm1nen.s0NUE
by Zuzana Zelenakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv) |
PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.
These news are original content from young talents around the world and are selected for you by Chris Cantell.
edited by Beata Biskova
Labels: CantellTV, Chris Cantell, Christopher Cantell, digital broadcasting, SigEx Foundry, SigEx Telecom, World News