The death toll from the earthquake that devastated an impoverished valley in south-western Pakistan rose to 215 today.
The 6.4-magnitude quake hit a mountainous area of Baluchistan province before dawn yesterday, demolishing an estimated 2,000 homes in several villages.
Provincial government minister Zamrak Khan said today that a total of 215 victims had been buried. Dozens of seriously injured people remain in hospital.
Another official said the rescue operation was over and that authorities were focusing on relief efforts for an estimated 15,000 people made homeless.
There was little hope of finding more survivors of the quake.
"Almost all the rubble had been cleared by last night," said Shaukat Ali, the home secretary of the province of Baluchistan, where the quake occurred. "We don't know if anyone is still buried in the debris."
Temperatures in the region, which neighbours Afghanistan, fell to around freezing overnight. The military said its relief teams had erected enough tents for between 8,000 and 10,000 people.
The quake hit before sunrise as most people slept. Witnesses reported two strong jolts about an hour apart, the second of which collapsed the flimsy mud-brick and timber houses common in the region.
The worst-hit area was the Ziarat valley, where hundreds of houses were destroyed in at least eight villages, including some buried in landslides triggered by the quake.
Dilawar Kakar, mayor of the hilltop town of Ziarat, said 170 people in the area had been killed, with 375 injured and around 15,000 left homeless.
Army planes flew in tents, medical supplies and blankets to the quake zone and countries including the US and Germany offered help.
Survivors had other concerns: mourning lost relatives and digging the mass graves in which many were being interred.
Hospitals were flooded with dead and injured. One patient at Quetta Civil Hospital, Raz Mohammed, said he was awakened by the sound of his children crying before he felt a jolt.
"I rushed toward them but the roof of my own room collapsed and the main iron support hit me," he said. "That thing broke my back and I am in severe pain, but thank God my children and relatives are safe."
PA