More than 200 people were injured in this earthquake that struck the south of the country on Thursday morning. The city of Harnai, located in a difficult region of access, has no electricity.
Le Monde with AFP
At least twenty people were killed and more than 200 wounded during a magnitude 5.7 earthquake that struck the south of Pakistan early Thursday, October 7 in the morning, according to local authorities.
“Rescue operations are in progress,” said the France-Presse Agency (AFP) the Minister of the Interior of Baluchistan Province, Zia Ullah Languau, adding that “more than 200 people [had been injured “. Many of the victims perished in the collapse of buildings, he said. Among the killed people are a woman and six children.
“We will soon send helicopters to the area to continue to support relief operations and to evacuate the wounded,” said a Baluchistan provincial government official, Suhail Anwar Hashmi. Another leader, Naseer Nasar, head of the provincial disaster management authority of Baluchistan, earlier mentioned a balance sheet of fifteen to twenty dead, while stating that it could increase.
The earthquake, magnitude 5.7 and a depth of 20 kilometers, occurred at 3 hours, local time (6 hours, Paris time), Thursday, October 7, according to the USGS, The Institute of Geological Studies of the United States.
A hospital immersed in black
The most affected area was the city of Harnai, in the mountains, a difficult region of access for help due to the lack of tarry, and where the electric and telephone networks are also poorly developed.
The earthquake also resulted in a power failure in the region, and the staff of the Harnai’s public hospital, already well equipped, is forced to work in the dark, informed AFP a manager of Zahoor Tarin. “We operate without electricity, helping us with torches and laptops,” he told.
“Most of the wounded have arrived with fractured members. Dozens of people have been returned home after receiving first aid. About 40 others were seriously injured and transferred to Quetta [the provincial capital , distant about a hundred kilometers from the epicenter] in ambulance, “said this manager. The earthquake was also felt in this city.
Pakistan, located at the meeting point of Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates, regularly recorded earthquakes. In October 2015, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake had made 400 deaths in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Ten years earlier, on October 8, 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake had more than 73,000 dead and 3.5 million homeless, mainly in the Cashmere Pakistani area.