40 feared dead in Iran, 20 in Pakistan; shockwaves felt in North India Pakistan, specifically Balochistan, appears to have borne the brunt of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked the Iranian border province of Sistan-Baluchestan on Tuesday afternoon. While Pakistan confirmed the death of at least 20 people following the earthquake, there were conflicting reports from Tehran which ranged from no deaths to 40 dead. However, given the remoteness of the region from both capitals, the last word has not been said on the casualties. While the tremors were felt as far in North India as Delhi, experts said that mild shocks felt earlier in the day in the North-East were unrelated to the Iran quake. The experts also said that the hypocentre, where the built-up strain energy is released and occurs below the epicentre, was located 82 km below surface, making it a deep earthquake. This was the reason the shock waves travelled long distances, into India. The Iranian Seismological Centre was quoted as saying that the epicentre of the quake, which occurred at 3-14 p.m. local time at a depth of 18 km, was situated 95 km north of the city of Saravan. Strong tremors were felt in major parts of the Middle East to the west of Iran and as far as Delhi to the east besides Afghanistan. This is said be the most powerful tremor to have struck Iran in four decades; stronger than the Bam earthquake that left thousands dead in 2003. In Pakistan, 21 people from the Mashkel area of Balochistan were killed and over thrice that number injured. Reports from other nearby districts — Gawadar, Turbat, Panjgur and Washuk — suggested damage to buildings but no casualties were reported. Those familiar with the sparsely populated area of the restive province said the high death toll in Mashkel could be the result of poor construction as building standards are not adhered to in these parts. The tremors were felt very strongly in the commercial capital of Karachi where people rushed out of their offices. There was all round panic with people reluctant to return to their offices and homes for fear of after shocks. While reports about the extent of damage in Balochistan were sketchy, it was even more so in the case of the Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan. Initial reports from Tehran said 40 people were killed in the quake but later the Iranian Students News Agency quoted the head of Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) Mahmoud Mozaffari as stating that there was no report available on the extent of loss. Iranian state TV denied reports of 40 killed with Mr. Mozaffari pointing out that the epicentre was a thinly populated area but the Director of Radio Tehran, Sajid Rizvi, told Radio Pakistan that 40 deaths had been confirmed. Part of the confusion over possible casualties around the epicentre is because communication lines have apparently been snapped. A state of emergency has been declared in the region and IRCS teams dispatched to the rural areas between Saravan and Khash to assess the scale of damage in what is one of the poorest provinces of the country. adds from New Delhi: Shockwaves from the Pakistan-Iran quake were felt in Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and several parts of Gujarat, besides Delhi and its neighbourhood. There were, however, no reports of any damage or casualty. In a report on the event, the India Meteorological Department, which is responsible for monitoring earthquakes, said preliminary calculations showed that the quake, which came under the category of “great earthquake”, took place around 33 km under the surface. “No significant after shock activity is reported so far. No major damage is expected in India due to this earthquake’’. In a press release, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India [NPCIL] said though tremors were felt in parts of northern and western India, nuclear power plants located in these regions remained unaffected. The Corporation has power plants at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan, Kakrapar in Gujarat and Narora in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier in the day, a moderate quake measuring 5 on the Richter scale on Arunachal Pradesh-China border shook parts of north east leading to the death of an eight-year old child in a mudslide in Assam.