DHAKA: A 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit south-west Pakistan on Saturday in a region already devastated by a quake which left more than 500 dead just days ago.

The new tremor struck 96 kilometres north-east of the district of Awaran at a depth of 14 km at 12.34pm (local time), according to the US Geological Survey, reports gulfnews.com.

‘It was not an aftershock it was an independent earthquake,’ Zahid Rafi, director of the National Seismic Centre of Pakistan, told Geo TV.

Awaran, a remote region in the province of Baluchistan, was shattered by a 7.7-magnitude quake on Tuesday which left more than 100,000 people homeless.

An international media reporter in Awaran said Saturday that hundreds of patients being treated in the aftermath of the previous quake fled a hospital in panic as the new tremor hit.

‘We are checking but no reports of losses have yet been received,’ Jan Mohammad Buledi, spokesman for the provincial government of Baluchistan told media.

BDST: 1707HRS, SEPT 28, 2013
RoR/RIS