Pakistan quake kills at least 20, injures hundreds

Quetta, Pakistan: An earthquake of magnitude 5.7 hit southern Pakistan in the early hours of Thursday, killing 20 people, most of them women and children, and injuring about 300, at a time when many victims were asleep, authorities said.

The earthquake struck at a shallow depth of about 20 km (12 miles), with its epicentre 102 km (62 miles) east of the city of Quetta, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

"I was sleeping when suddenly my entire house jolted," Munir Shah, 40, a resident of Harnai district in Balochistan province, told Reuters by telephone.