MASHKEL (Balochistan): More than 12,000 people living in this remote, impoverished desert region near the Iranian border have been affected by this week’s huge earthquake, a relief official said on Thursday. “We have done a rapid survey and found that over 12,000 people have been affected by the quake in Mashkel,” said Mehboob Ali, a district coordinator for the Balochistan Rural Support Programme charity.

He said more than 3,200 homes, made mostly of mud, were either damaged or no longer habitable, forcing people to sleep out in the open or in makeshift shelters for a third night.

The military on Thursday continued to fly in medicine and tents, but more supplies are desperately needed, said local official Syed Mureed Shah.—AFP