Pakistan quake death toll tops 200

QUETTA, Pakistan, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The death toll from a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in Pakistan topped 200, officials said Wednesday, as hundreds of people were hurt and thousands left homeless.

At least 160 bodies were pulled from rubble in the Ziarat district of Baluchistan province in the aftermath of the quake, provisional government sources told KUNA, the Kuwaiti news agency.

Officials said more than 20,000 people were homeless.

"It was a shallow earthquake, which is very destructive. The aftershocks will be felt for a week with more or less the same intensity," Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, director general of Pakistan Meteorological Department, said.

Chaudhry said the area was earthquake-prone, The New York Times reported. The epicenter of Wednesday's quake was 70 miles north of Quetta, the provincial capital.

A military spokesman said army troops and medics moved into two villages, Warchoom and Kawas, in Ziarat district, one of the hardest hit districts.