An earth­quake mea­sur­ing 7.8 on the Richter scale struck on Tues­day in the Balochis­tan province that has claimed more than 330 lives in the remote and sparse­ly pop­u­lat­ed south-west­ern area. 

Imran Mujta­ba AP2MI reports that mem­bers of the Pak­istan Ama­teur Radio Soci­ety (PARS) have pro­vid­ed emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions support.

He said they have been extend­ing coop­er­a­tion and con­tribut­ing to the dis­as­ter relief  oper­a­tion, helped by out­side experts.

The earth­quake destroyed hun­dreds of hous­es and cut com­mu­ni­ca­tions. In the worst affect­ed area of Awaran it caused a small island to emerge just off the Pak­istani coast­line in the Ara­bi­an Sea.

The army and res­cuers are still search­ing for sur­vivors in one of the coun­try’s remotest areas.

It was the worst earth­quake in Pak­istan since 2005, when about 75,000 peo­ple were killed in the north.

-Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.