At least 200 people have been killed and many more injured after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit southwestern Pakistan, according to local officials.

The provincial government has declared an emergency in Awaran district of Balochistan, the area worst hit by the quake, which struck at 4:29pm local time (11:29 GMT) at a depth of 15km.

Brigadier Syed Wajid Raza, ERRA's chief of staff, told Al Jazeera that many people were still trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

The Pakistani military, meanwhile, has said that it has commenced rescue operations in the area.

Abdul Qadoos, deputy speaker of the Balochistan provincial assembly, told Reuters that at least 30 percent of houses in the impoverished Awaran district had caved in.

New island

The USGS originally measured the earthquake at a magnitude of 7.4 and depth of 29km, but later revised that figure. Pakistan's meteorological office said the magnitude was 7.7.

Tremors were felt across the province as well as in the port city of Karachi, residents have said. Mild tremors were also felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi.

The earthquake was so powerful that it caused the seabed to rise and create a small, mountain-like island about 600m off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea.

Television channels showed images of a stretch of rocky terrain rising above the sea level, with a crowd of bewildered people gathering on the shore to witness the rare phenomenon.

The epicenter was in a remote, thinly populated mountainous area of Balochistan with no major industrial installations.

Muhammad Riaz, a senior Pakistan meteorologist, told local media that the earthquake was "major" and that "heavy destruction" was likely.

Mumtaz Baloch, a senior local administration official in Awaran district, 350km southwest of provincial capital Quetta, told AFP: "There are reports of houses being collapsed in the district due to earthquake."

"We also have initial information about injuries to people as a result of the collapse of houses but there are no reports of any deaths. We have dispatched our teams to the affected area to ascertain the losses."

In April, a 7.8-magnitude quake centered in southeast Iran, close to the border with Balochistan, killed 41 people and affected more than 12,000 on the Pakistan side of the border.

PHOTO CAPTION

Hundreds of mud houses collapsed on people in a remote area near the Iranian border [Reuters]

Aljazeera