Islamabad/Tehran, Apr 16: A major earthquake of intensity 7.8 on the Richter scale rocked the Iran-Pakistan border, sending tremors as far as Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
While 22 persons have so far died of quake in Pakistan, Iran appeared to have emerged relatively unscathed.
Experts said the depth was the likely reason for the relatively low level of damage from a 7.8 magnitude quake.
Soon after the quake, an Iranian official said, he expected hundreds of dead and state media quoted unconfirmed reports of 40 fatalities in Iran.
Hatam Narouyi, governor of Sistan and Iran's Baluchistan province, later told the state-run Iranian news agency ISNA: "Fortunately, the earthquake resulted in no fatalities."
The U.S. Geological Survey, in a revised bulletin, said the quake hit at 1614 hrs IST (Indian Standard Time)at a depth of 82 km.
The epicenter was 198 km southeast of the city of Zahedan and 250 km northwest of Turbat in Pakistan.
People in the Iranian city of Zahedan poured into the streets when it struck, Fars news agency reported.
Iranian Red Crescent official Morteza Moradipour said emergency crews, including dog teams to sniff through the debris for any buried survivors, had reached the area.
"Because of the strength of the earthquake we had expected to see significant damage in residential areas but the quake was at a depth of 95 km and therefore the extent of the damage was on par with earthquakes measuring magnitude 4," he said.
A Savaran official, Mohammad Sharif Khaleghi, told ISNA that about six or seven people had been injured and buildings were damaged in villages near the towns of Saravan and Gasht.
It was the second big quake to hit Iran in a week. On April 9, a powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck close to Iran's only nuclear power station, killing 37 people, injuring 850 and devastating two villages.
Islamabad: At least 22 people were killed, over 100 others injured and hundreds of houses collapsed in earthquake that hit parts of east, south and southwest Pakistan on Tuesday, reported Xinhua citing local media.
Quoting hospital sources, local TV channel Express said that at least 21 people were killed and over 100 injured in Mashkel village located near Pakistan-Iran border in southwest Balochistan province.
Local media reported that the earthquake leveled over 1,000 houses to ground in Mashkel and its adjoining villages which are home to over 35,000 people. Sources from paramilitary troops confirmed that hundreds of houses were collapsed by the tremors.
More details about causalities and the conditions of injured people are awaited as the village is located in a far flung mountainous area, at about 514 km away from the provincial capital of Quetta.
Sources from Kharan, the closest district from Mashkel, told Xinhua that they have dispatched two buses of young volunteers to the quake-hit area for rescue and relief operation, but they cannot contact them yet, as all telecommunication towers fell down in the area.
Inter Service Public Relations said that they have directed concerned military units to start operation in the affected areas.
Meanwhile in Gawadar area of Balochistan, one man was killed in a land slide triggered by the earthquake.
In the country's southern port city of Karachi, at least five people were injured as two buildings partially collapsed in the earthquake.
In Dera Ghazi Khan district of eastern Punjab province, three people were injured and five cattle died in land sliding triggered by the earthquake in the mountainous area.
The strong earthquake hit parts of Pakistan at 3:44 p.m. local time for about 20 to 25 seconds. Local Met office said that the epicenter was located on Pakistan-Iran border at the depth of 76 km.
