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An earthquake struck a remote mountainous region of southern Pakistan dotted with coal mines and mud dwellings early Thursday, killing at least 11 people and injured more than 200, according to an official. The casualty toll is expected to rise as officials scour the inaccessible hilly region, according to Suhail Anwar Shaheen, the area’s deputy commissioner.
According to local coal miners, at least four of the victims were murdered when the coal mine in which they were working collapsed. According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake’s epicentre was 14 kilometres north-northeast of Harnai in Baluchistan province. It happened around 20 kilometres beneath the earth’s surface.
The area is littered with coal mines, about 100 kilometres from Quetta, the province capital, and Shaheen is concerned that the death toll may climb. It happened early in the morning, he added, when several miners were already on the job. The majority of residents live in sun-baked mud dwellings, many of which have collapsed. Rescue attempts were starting, but Shaheen estimated that getting to many of the worst-affected communities would take hours.
