Death toll in Pakistan earthquake reaches 300

Pakistan deployed military helicopters to reach thousands of people feared trapped under rubble Tuesday, officials said, a day after a powerful earthquake that so far has killed over 300 people in the region.
The death toll in Pakistan has reached 230, according to Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed, reports dpa.
Most deaths in Pakistan were reported from the mountainous region of Malakand in the north near the Afghan border, Rasheed said.
Nearly 80 people were killed in eastern Afghanistan in the 7.5-magnitude earthquake that jolted a vast region from Tajikistan to New Delhi in India.
At least four people were killed in the Himalayan valleys of Indian near country's border with China and Pakistan, officials in New Delhi said.
Military and civilian agencies in Pakistan were mounting a massive rescue operation to reach people in areas still inaccessible due to landslides triggered by the tremor, Minister Rasheed added.
But their efforts were hampered by more landslides and heavy rains overnight.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Tuesday ordered the military to fly MI 17 helicopters to the inaccessible areas, his spokesman Mussadik Malik said.
More than 2,000 injured people were being treated at hospitals in the north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, provincial government adviser Mushtaq Ghani said.
Nearly 2,500 houses have been damaged in the province alone, said Ghani, adding the tribal regions near the Afghan border were also hit hard.
Most of the affected people in the north-western town of Dir spent the chilly night in the open, waiting for help to arrive.
"Our houses are destroyed. We are with children and without shelter," said Zaman Khan, from Chakdara village, "somebody should come and help us."
In Afghanistan, authorities were also struggling to reach survivors in the remote region partially controlled by the insurgent Taliban, said Mawlawi Hamidullah Muslim, Provincial Council member from Badakhshan province.