The Pakistani army said Wednesday that it evacuated 16 seriously injured people by helicopter from the site of a deadly earthquake near the Iranian border. There were conflicting reports about the death toll from Tuesday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake, which was centered in southeastern Iran but also hit Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province. Initially, a Pakistani military official said 34 had died in Pakistan, but the head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Baluchistan, Maj. Gen. Obaidullah Khattak, later told reporters in the hard-hit Mashkel area that 10-12 people were killed and about 30 injured. Over 300 Pakistani soldiers, including doctors and engineers, were helping with the rescue and relief effort, the army said. The soldiers have set up a field hospital in the Mashkel area and have distributed food, medicine and blankets. Five army helicopters were participating in the relief operation, and some of them flew the more seriously injured to Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, the army was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
