QUETTA: The death toll rose to 400 on Friday with more than 760 others injured after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Pakistan’s southwestern areas on Tuesday, Dispatch News Desk reported.
The officials said that thousands had been left homeless and some 300,000 people affected in remote parts of Balochistan province.
The earthquake toppled thousands of mud-built homes as it spread havoc through Awaran and Kech districts and through the southwestern parts of the country, Balochistan government spokesperson Muhammad Jan Buledi said.
Meanwhile, the relief work was ongoing in the affected areas of the province but there was still a shortage of food, water and tents, the federal minister Abdul Qadir Baloch said.
Baloch said the provincial government, administration, Pakistan army, Frontier Corps and NGOs were taking part in relief work in district Awaran, but due to the large scale devastation in the area, relief activities were falling short.
The provincial government established the Chief Minister Fund for assistance and rehabilitation of quake-hit people of the Balochistan province.
The officials communiqué issued in this regard said that national, international organizations and the federal and provincial government could donate for the earthquake affectees in this fund.
The donors could submit their amount in the National Bank Pakistan (NBP) Civil Secretariat branch account number 3261-3 from any of the NBP branch across the country.