WAM (Pakistan) - A 5.0-MAGNITUDE aftershock rattled southwestern Pakistan early on Saturday, three days after a powerful earthquake killed up to 300 people there, the US Geological Survey said.

The latest quake struck just before 6am (midnight GMT, 8am Singapore time) north-east of the city of Quetta, in an area where tens of thousands of people were made homeless by a strong pre-dawn tremor on Wednesday.

There were no immediate reports of further casualties or damage as a result of the latest aftershock, the second strongest of more than 250 tremors to have shaken the region since Wednesday.

Aid agencies have warned that disease is beginning to spread among quake survivors in the mountainous Baluchistan province, where thousands of children and women are still desperately waiting for relief supplies.

Thousands of people whose mud-brick homes were flattened have been sleeping in the open in freezing temperatures. -- AFP