Multiple aftershocks continued to rock impoverished Baluchistan province, creating fresh fears among survivors who prepared to spend a second night in the open in sub-zero temperatures as the cold winter set in.

Some travelled long distances on severely damaged roads to the provincial capital Quetta to plead for tents and emergency supplies as some villages still had not received help more than 36 hours after the quake.

"The death toll may be 300 or even more," provincial government revenue minister Zamarak Khan told AFP. The district health officer of the historic hill town of Ziarat, Ayub Kakar, said 300 had already been reached.

Earlier, Khan said he had been told that at least 215 people died when the 6.4-magnitude quake struck before dawn on Wednesday north of Quetta.

Most of the victims were killed or injured in outlying villages in the mountainous region bordering Afghanistan when their mud-brick houses were flattened.

More died when a 6.2-magnitude aftershock hit the region on Wednesday afternoon, he said.

But determining the exact number of victims remained difficult as many families buried their dead immediately in line with Muslim tradition, without going to hospital and leaving no official record, he added.

Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have been made homeless by the quake, and villagers from Gogi, 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Ziarat, travelled to Quetta to draw attention to their plight.

Mohammad Khair told reporters three people were killed and all of the village's 35 houses were either badly damaged or destroyed.

"We need tents, food and shelter," he said.

"The problem is that Gogi is situated some five kilometres off the road. A few volunteers came and left but delivered nothing," villager Mohammad Mateen added.

An AFP correspondent in Wam, one of the worst-hit villages, said emergency tents had not arrived by Thursday morning, and exhausted villagers had been forced to hunker down in the ruined shells of their homes overnight.

They had spent the previous day in a desperate search for loved ones or burying the dead in mass graves and fearing further tremors.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department said it had recorded more than 250 aftershocks. More are likely to be felt into next week but of decreasing magnitude, they added.

Pakistan's information minister Sherry Rehman said Thursday she could not say whether the overnight cold claimed more lives but pledged that "we will not let that happen among the survivors".

A full picture of the number of dead could take up to two days to emerge, but the official number was 145 so far, she added.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) put the death toll at 149, with more than 370 injured, and said about 2,000 houses had been completely destroyed. They said a total of 35,600 people were affected by the quake.

Local officials said the extent of the damage was more widespread.

Earlier, destitute survivors sat beside campfires or huddled together as day broke over the quake zone and the military, civic authorities and aid agencies distributed blankets, tents, food and vital medical help.

Swift relief was hampered by damage to key roads, said Amjad Rashid, head of the Taraqi (development) Foundation, a local non-governmental organisation.

As offers of help came from around the world, survivors appealed particularly for tents to provide warmth as the cold winter set in.

"We could bear hunger but not to see our families shivering under open skies," said one elderly labourer, Shahad Khan.

"Don't give us food but give us shelter, give us tents and blankets."

Farmer Azeem Khan, added: "It will take more than a month for me to reconstruct my mud house. Until then, I cannot imagine what will happen to my children and the rest of my family."

Pakistan is no stranger to natural disasters: in October 2005, a 7.6-magnitude quake killed 74,000 people and displaced 3.5 million in the northwest of the country and Kashmir.

In 1935 a massive quake killed around 30,000 people in Quetta, which at the time was part of British-ruled India.

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