British survivors of the Quetta earthquake in India (now Pakistan) on arrival at Waterloo Station, London. 'Nearly a thousand survivors of the terrible Quetta Baluchistan earthquake, the majority of them women and children, arrived at London today by special train from Southampton. They were met by ambulances used to transport injured survivors to their various homes. Many of the survivors lost relatives and all their worldly possessions in the disaster.'

The town of Quetta saw most of the fatalities and this earthquake has since been known as the Quetta Earthquake. The Civil Lines was completely destroyed and upto 15,000 people are thought to have perished here alone . The police lines, the durbar hall, the civil and mission hospitals and the club were ruined. A few reinforced concrete structures and the new railway quarters escaped with minor damage. The cantonment suffered much less damage, but a few buildings did collapse. That too was confined to a kilometre wide stretch that lay along the civil lines and the Durani Nallah, one of two watercourses that ran through the town. The fort was also damaged and many building collapsed. In the Royal Airforce Lines, the hangars at the airfield were all that were left standing though they were badly damaged. Every aircraft was rendered unsafe to fly. Piped water was not disrupted in Quetta and power supply carried on with a restricted load. Upto 26,000 people are believed to have been killed in Quetta alone and a few thousand bodies were left buried in the ruins. Most of the administration in Quetta was killed but troops from the military base organized rescue quickly. They evacuated survivors and cordoned off the town to prevent looting and the outbreak of epidemic as well as provided protection and salvaging property from destroyed structures. They also carried out mass burials or cremations of the dead. Letters written during that period by survivors contain vivid descriptions of the earthquake and its aftermath.

Outside of Quetta to the south, Mastung was flattened along with the Khan's palace and 1,736 people were killed. The village of Sariab was razed to the ground and 1,206 people were killed. 1,010 lives were lost at Kansi which was also destroyed. 710 people were killed at Tiri and 369 at Pringabad. 120 died at Kalat and much of the town was laid to waste. All the villages between Quetta and Kalat were destroyed with about 70% of the population dead or injured. In the state of Kalat, 2,900 were killed and 5,000 injured. Nearly 100 villages in this region were devastated. In the Kalat tribal area, 8,410 deaths were recorded. Though the total number of fatalities from this earthquake are a mere estimate, it is believed nearly 35,000 people might have perished, making this earthquake the deadliest in the entire sub-continent in recent history.