THOUSANDS of Pakistanis have been affected by a huge earthquake in Iran that damaged hundreds of homes and killed at least 41 people, sparking a military rescue effort in the remote region.
The United States also offered aid after the 7.8-magnitude quake, Iran's most powerful in five decades, damaged an estimated 2000 mud-built homes of Mashkail, a town in the poor Pakistani province of Baluchistan.
Tuesday's earthquake was felt across the region and though the epicentre lay in southeast Iran, all but one of the deaths reported so far have been across the border in Pakistan.
Efforts to help the survivors have been hampered by Mashkail's remote location - communities are scattered, there are no paved roads, no electricity and limited mobile phone coverage, and no proper medical facilities.
Only three tents were visible in the town and frightened families prepared to spend a second night out in the open, sheltering under trees, an AFP reporter said, too scared to return to their homes for fear of aftershocks.
A 5.7-magnitude tremor early on Wednesday frayed nerves even further. Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority said 105 injured people had been treated.
Esa Tahir, a local coordinator for the charity Islamic Relief said that after surveying two local councils in Mashkail, 5000 people have been affected and around 2000 mud homes have been damaged or destroyed, along with 150 shops.
At least five government buildings, including administrative and revenue offices, a school and a hospital, were also damaged, an AFP reporter said.
Eight injured people, including four young children from the same family, were waiting for a helicopter to fly them to Quetta, the provincial capital.
A helicopter came but could not land due to a dust storm, a military officer said, adding that they will be evacuated on Thursday.
The area's scattered population made determining the death toll difficult, but Frontier Corps Major Attiq Minhas told AFP at Dalbandin airport, around 250 kilometres from Mashkail, that at least 40 people had died.
On the Iranian side of the border, one woman was reported killed by falling rocks and the Red Crescent rushed 400 tents to shelter some 1700 people who lost their homes in the quake.
Baluchistan, an inaccessible province bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is plagued by Islamist militancy, attacks on the Shi'ite Muslim minority and a separatist Baluch insurgency.
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