A powerful earthquake hit southwest Pakistan, geologists said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The quake struck at 1.23 am local time (0723 AEDT), with its epicentre around 50 kilometres west of the town of Dalbandin, close to the border with Afghanistan, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
Television footage showed panicked people rushing out of their homes and into the streets in very cold conditions, reciting verses from the Koran.
USGS said the quake had a magnitude of 7.2 and hit at a depth of 84 kilometres, revising down an earlier report of 7.4-magnitude.
The initial bulletin from USGS said the earthquake hit just 10 kilometres below the surface. At that depth, quakes can cause major destruction and loss of life. Pakistan's Meteorological Department gave a magnitude of 7.3 and located the epicentre 55 kilometres northwest of Kharan, a town in the thinly populated southwestern Baluchistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
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"The earthquake occurred at around 1:23 am and it was felt in Baluchistan, Sindh and southern Punjab provinces," chief meteorologist Mohammad Riaz told AFP.
"There could be aftershocks during the next week -- there are active fault lines in Baluchistan."
There were no immediate reports of any casualties. Rescue services said that they were on alert after the quake, but so far had received no emergency calls.
Strong tremors were felt as far as the Indian capital Delhi, around 1300 kilometres away, as well as several other cities across northwestern India, though there were no reports of any damage.
Data on the USGS website suggested the quake had also been felt across the Gulf from Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no chance of the inland quake causing a tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
Northern Pakistan was hit by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake on October 8, 2005 that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistan is still battling back from the devastating effects of floods last year.
Catastrophic monsoon rains that swept north to south in July and August affected 21 million people, consumed entire villages, wiped out agricultural land and destroyed industries in the country's worst natural disaster yet.
