date.The quake lasted for 3 mins and its latest estimated magnitude on the Richter scale was 7.7.
The epicenter of the quake was established to be 4-kilometers south-west of the town of Ali Jaan in Balochistan, some 153-kilometers away from Quetta in British India. The earthquake caused destruction in almost all the towns close to Quetta including the city itself and tremors were felt as far as Agra, now in India. The largest aftershock was later measured at 5.8 MW occurring on 2 June 1935. Infrastructure was severely damaged. The railway area was completely destroyed and all the houses were razed to the ground with the exception of the Government House that stood in ruins. A quarter of the Cantonment area was destroyed but military equipment and the Royal Air Force garrison suffered serious damages. It was reported that only 6 out of the 27 machines worked after the initial seismic activity.[2] A Regimental Journal for the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Royal Regiment based in Quetta issued on November 1935 stated,

It is not possible to describe the state of the city when the battalion first saw it. It was completely razed to the ground. Corpses were lying everywhere in the hot sun and every available vehicle in Quetta was being used for the transportation of injured Companies were given areas in which to clear the dead and injured. Battalion Headquarters were established at the Residency. Hardly had we commenced our work than we were called upon to supply a party of fifty men, which were later increased to a hundred, to dig graves in the cemetery.[2]

Until the night of May 31 (1935), Quetta was a city of 60,000 human souls; base of the Royal Air Force and an important gateway to India. On the morning of June 1 it was a city of death and desolation. Earth tremors which shook a region 130 miles long and 20 miles wide and wiped out more than 100 villages over that terrain had snuffed out the lives of at least 40,000 of Quetta's inhabitants, including 200 Europeans and 43 of Britain's airmen. Hardly a house remained standing and, to protect the survivors from an outbreak of cholera, they were moved out of the city to adjoining plains and the city was sealed while the work of removing and disposing of the dead, was carried on.