A shallow 5.7-magnitude earthquake hit southwest Pakistan on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said. The quake struck at 5:53 am (0053 GMT) around 330 kilometres (200 miles) southwest of Quetta, the capital of the province of Baluchistan, at a depth of eigt kilometres. A powerful 7.2-magnitude quake that hit southwest Pakistan in January sent people rushing from their homes in panic but did not cause significant casualties. 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.