ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION<br/> <br />The death toll from a powerful earthquake in Pakistan rose to at least 208 on Wednesday (September 25) after hundreds of mud houses collapsed on people in a remote area near the Iranian border, officials said.<br/> <br />At least 373 people have been reported injured.<br/> <br />The earthquake struck Pakistan's thinly populated province of Baluchistan on Tuesday and was felt across South Asia.<br/> <br />The United States Geological Survey said the quake was 7.8 in magnitude.<br/> <br />It destroyed houses and cut communications with the worst affected district of Awaran, and was so powerful that it caused a small island to emerge from the sea just off the coastline in the Arabian Sea.<br/> <br />The army deployed helicopters and hundreds of soldiers to help deal with the rescue effort in the huge, earthquake-prone province of deserts and rugged mountains bordering Iran and Afghanistan.
