Pakistan Hit by Major Earthquakes

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At least 15 people killed after second quake in region where 515 people died on Tuesday

At least 15 people were killed when a major earthquake hit Pakistan's south-west on Saturday, days after another quake in the same region killed 515 people. The US Geological Survey said on its website that a 6.8 magnitude quake was felt in Pakistan's south-western Baluchistan province.

The Pakistani Meteorological Department measured the earthquake at 7.2 magnitude. The department said its epicentre was located about 90 miles (145km) west of the town of Khuzdar.  There were no immediate reports of casualties, said Abdur Rasheed, the deputy commissioner of Awaran district, where both quakes occurred.

Since then tens of thousands of people have been sleeping under the open sky or tents. Rasheed said they had received reports that some homes that were damaged but still standing after Tuesday's quake had collapsed on Saturday.

He said they are trying to get information whether people were living in some of the partially damaged homes.  "Today's earthquake damaged the already damaged buildings and homes," he said.  There may have been little left to damage after Tuesday's disaster. Few of the mud and homemade brick houses in the area survived the 7.7 magnitude quake that levelled houses and buried people in the rubble across the district of Awaran.  Bodies are still being discovered in houses whose mud walls and wooden roof beams had collapsed.

"My daughter was killed when my house collapsed - I was also inside my house but managed to run out," said 70-year-old Gul Jan told Reuters. "We are sitting under the scorching sun and need shelter."

In Labash village near Awaran, more than half of the 3,000 houses have collapsed and those still standing have wide cracks.  "Everywhere we go people are asking for tents," legislator Abdul Qadeer Baloch said.

Chief Pakistani meteorologist Arif Mahmood told Pakistani television that it was an aftershock from this week's earthquake and such tremors might continue for weeks to come. The aftershock struck about 18 miles to the south-southwest of where Tuesday's earthquake struck, according to the US Geological Survey.