Tens of thousands of residents spent the night outside their apartment buildings and homes in southern Pakistan following a huge earthquake in a remote region, RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal reports.
But Pakistan's chief meteorologist, Mohammad Riaz, said there was no serious damage as the quake's epicenter was in a sparsely populated area in Baluchistan Province, near the border with Afghanistan.
Several affected places reported no injuries.
Pakistani news channels initially said some buildings suffered damaged in the town of Khanpur, in the southern Sindh province.
Local journalists in Dalbandin, a town just 34 kilometers from the epicenter, told a Radio Mashaal reporter that residents were sleeping outdoors in case of dangerous structural damage or further tremors.
The United States Geological Service put the magnitude of the earthquake at 7.4. Reports say the tremors were felt as far away as the Indian capital New Delhi, some 1,300 kilometers away.
Earthquakes often rattle the region, in some cases with severe consequences. A magnitude 7.6 quake in October 2005 killed some 80,000 people in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir and left more than 3 million others homeless.
Meanwhile, police in northwest Pakistan said a bomb exploded outside a school, killing at least one person and wounding 14 others, some of them schoolchildren. Authorities said the explosive was planted outside the school in a residential area of the city of Peshawar.
compiled from agency and media reports
But Pakistan's chief meteorologist, Mohammad Riaz, said there was no serious damage as the quake's epicenter was in a sparsely populated area in Baluchistan Province, near the border with Afghanistan.
Several affected places reported no injuries.
Pakistani news channels initially said some buildings suffered damaged in the town of Khanpur, in the southern Sindh province.
Local journalists in Dalbandin, a town just 34 kilometers from the epicenter, told a Radio Mashaal reporter that residents were sleeping outdoors in case of dangerous structural damage or further tremors.
The United States Geological Service put the magnitude of the earthquake at 7.4. Reports say the tremors were felt as far away as the Indian capital New Delhi, some 1,300 kilometers away.
Earthquakes often rattle the region, in some cases with severe consequences. A magnitude 7.6 quake in October 2005 killed some 80,000 people in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir and left more than 3 million others homeless.
Meanwhile, police in northwest Pakistan said a bomb exploded outside a school, killing at least one person and wounding 14 others, some of them schoolchildren. Authorities said the explosive was planted outside the school in a residential area of the city of Peshawar.
compiled from agency and media reports
