MANILA – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said there were no Filipino casualties in the massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Iran and shook buildings as far away as the Gulf and New Delhi.

On his official Twitter account, DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez said: “Based on initial reports from PH Embassies in Tehran and Abu Dhabi, NO reports of Filipino casualties in the 7.8 earthquake in Iran.”

The quake, measured at magnitude 7.8 by the US Geological Survey, damaged hundreds of mud-built buildings in remote southwestern Pakistan and comes a week after another struck near Iran’s Gulf port city of Bushehr, killing at least 30 people.

Crisis management authorities have declared a state of emergency in the quake-hit area, Iran’s official news agency IRNA said, but so far there have been no confirmed deaths on the Iranian side.

In Pakistan, the military has mobilized to help the relief effort after the quake brought down homes in the Mashkail area in Baluchistan province.

Two military helicopters carrying medical teams have been sent to the area, which lies just a few kilometers from the Iranian border, while paramilitary troops were being moved to supplement the relief efforts.

The quake struck at 3:14 pm Iranian time (1044 GMT) with its epicentre around 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of the Iranian city of Khash, in the province of Sistan Baluchistan, USGS said, at a depth of 82 kilometres. – with Agence France-Presse