The death toll continues to rise in the devastating Pakistan earthquake that occurred on Tuesday in the Baluchistan region in the southwestern portion of that country.

On Thursday, Pakistan officials say that the toll is now at 355 people. At least 600 more were injured as a result of the magnitude 7.7 quake. The area where the quake hit the hardest has homes predominantly built from mud and rocks which coillapsed easily during the earthquake.

The quake, the epicenter of which,was approximately 143 miles to the southwest of Dalbandin, was felt as far away as New Delhi and prompted the sealevel to rise and caused a small island to emerge out of the ocean near Pakistan’s southern coast. That island is believed to be a mud volcano created when mud, sand and water gushed from beneath the ocean floor. Seismologists suspect that the formation is a temporary one and will soon recede back under the ocean’s surface much as the one that formed in 1968 only to sink back into the sea.

The island is approximately 300 feet high with approximately 60 or 70 feet of that extending above the surface of the sea. One side of the new island is seeping gas which has been lit by observers at the site.

The Pakistan military has been deployed to help in the recovery efforts from the quake and relief camps are being set up in various cities in the area to help those affected by the earthquake.

The widespread destruction caused by the quake has hampered efforts by relief workers to transport the injured to area hospitals in the largely roadless region. In other instances, relief workers have been attacked and in one instance on Thursday an army helicopter came under rocket fire as they surveyed the scene.

This most recent quake is the most devastating to hit the region since 2005 when that quake near Kashmir killed at least 73,000 people.