A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake has hit southwest Pakistan, killing at least 12 people in a region already devastated by a tremor which left more than 300 people dead this week, local officials say.
"At least 12 people have died and seven others are wounded," Abdul Latif Kakar, head of the provincial disaster management agency, said.
Officials fear the death toll in Saturday's quake in Awaran, the poorest district in the southwest province of Baluchistan, could rise.
The new quake struck the remote district at a depth of 14 kilometres at 12.34pm (1734 AEST) according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Although USGS said it was an aftershock of the Tuesday 7.7-magnitude quake, an official at the National Seismic Centre of Pakistan classified it as a new earthquake.
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"It was not an aftershock, it was an independent earthquake," Zahid Rafi, director of the National Seismic Centre of Pakistan, told Geo TV.
Awaran, a district in the southwest province of Baluchistan, was shattered by the 7.7-magnitude quake on Tuesday which left 359 dead and more than 100,000 people homeless.
"This new earthquake destroyed all that remains of the first quake, two villages destroyed completely," said Abdul Malik, provincial chief minister of Baluchistan.
Officials said villagers were digging through newly created debris and that seven wounded people have been taken to a make-shift hospital in Mashkey area, Awaran.
Relief efforts there have been further thwarted by insurgent attacks on rescue convoys, with local officials admitting that teams have been unable to reach thousands of survivors in the worst-hit areas.
Hundreds of patients in Awaran who were being treated on Saturday in the aftermath of the previous quake fled a hospital in panic as the new tremor hit.
Pakistan's chief meteorologist Arif Mehmood told Express News that the magnitude of Saturday's quake measured 7.2.
Deputy Commissioner of Awaran, Abdul Rasheed Baloch told Geo TV that the quake destroyed hundreds of mud houses in the Mashkey area, adding that "a lot of people have been trapped under the rubble".
"The telephone system has been damaged and we are not able to talk to someone and find out the exact information about the losses... But we have reports of severe losses in that area," Baloch said.
Even before the latest quake struck, local officials said some 30,000 survivors were still waiting for aid.
