The death toll reached 230 in Pakistan, according to Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed.

Most deaths in Pakistan were reported from the mountainous region of Malakand in the north near the Afghan border, Rasheed said.

More than 70 people were killed in eastern Afghanistan in the 7.5-magnitude earthquake that jolted a vast region from Tajikistan to New Delhi in India.

More than 1,200 injured people were being treated at hospitals in the north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak said.

In neighbouring Afghanistan, authorities were also struggling to reach survivors in the remote region partially controlled by the insurgent Taliban, said Mawlawi Hamidullah Muslim, Provincial Council member from Badakhshan province.