Separatist militants fired two rockets that narrowly missed a Pakistani government helicopter surveying a region devastated by an earthquake, underscoring the dangers authorities face in helping victims in Baluchistan.

Rescuers struggled to help thousands of people injured and left homeless after their houses collapsed in a major earthquake in southwestern Pakistan, while the death toll from the massive temblor there rose to 285.

Alongside the carnage of Pakistan's massive earthquake came a new creation: a small island of mud, stone and bubbling gas pushed forth from the seabed.