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Massive Asia quake kills more than 30,000
BALAKOT, Pakistan - Villagers desperate to find survivors dug with bare hands Sunday through the debris of a collapsed school where children had been heard crying beneath the rubble after a massive earthquake killed more than 30,000 people in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir alone. Saturday’s magnitude-7.6 quake also struck India and Afghanistan, which reported hundreds dead.
“I have been informed by my department that more than 30,000 people have died in Kashmir,” Tariq Mahmmod, communications minister for the Himalayan region, told The Associated Press.
In Kashmir, the quake flattened dozens of villages and towns, crushing schools and mud-brick houses. The dead included 250 girls at a school razed to the ground and more than 200 Pakistani soldiers on duty in the Himalayas.
Pakistan’s army called the earthquake the country’s worst-ever disaster and appealed for urgent help. Rival India, the United States, the United Nations, Britain, Russia, China, Turkey, Japan and Germany all offered assistance.
Desperate search through the debris
Near the ruins of the school, at least a dozen bodies were strewn on the streets of Balakot, a devastated village of about 30,000 just west of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir where the earthquake struck shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday.
The worst-hit city in Pakistani Kashmir was its capital, Muzaffarabad, where 11,000 died, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said. He also said 42,397 were injured.
Helicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas on Sunday. But landslides and rain hindered rescue efforts, blocking roads to some remote areas.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf appealed to the international community to help with relief efforts. He appealed for medicine, tents, cargo helicopters and financial assistance.
“We do seek international assistance. We have enough manpower but we need financial support ... to cope with the tragedy,” Musharraf said. He said supplies were needed “to reach out to the people in far-flung and cut-off areas.” The president spoke in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad, before leaving on a tour of devastated areas.
'The worst disaster in Pakistan’s history'
The quake was felt across a wide swath of South Asia from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh. It swayed buildings in the capitals of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, an area stretching across some 625 miles across. In Islamabad, a 10-story building collapsed.
“We are handling the worst disaster in Pakistan’s history,” chief army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.
Authorities in India reported 360 deaths and 900 people injured, while Afghanistan reported four killed.
On Sunday, Pakistani military helicopters ferried troops and supplies to some hard-hit areas. But there was no sign of government help in Balakot. The quake leveled the village’s main bazaar, crushing shoppers and strewing gas cylinders, bricks, tomatoes and onions on the streets.
Injured people covered by shawls lay in the street, waiting for medical care. Residents carried bodies on wooden planks. The corpses of four children, aged between four and six, lay under a sheet of corrugated iron. Relatives said they were trying to find sheets to wrap the bodies.
“We don’t have anything to bury them with,” said a cousin, Saqib Swati.
Nearby, Faizan Farooq, a 19-year-old business administration student, stood outside the rubble of his four-story school, where at least 250 pupils were feared trapped. Dozens of villagers, some with sledgehammers but many without any tools, pulled at the debris and carried away bodies.
Farooq said that he could hear children under the rubble crying for help immediately after the disaster on Saturday.
“Now there’s no sign of life,” he said. “We can’t do this without the army’s help. Nobody has come here to help us.”
A 40-year-old man at the scene wept. He said four of his children were buried in the debris.
Massive Asia quake kills more than 30,000
BALAKOT, Pakistan - Villagers desperate to find survivors dug with bare hands Sunday through the debris of a collapsed school where children had been heard crying beneath the rubble after a massive earthquake killed more than 30,000 people in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir alone. Saturday’s magnitude-7.6 quake also struck India and Afghanistan, which reported hundreds dead.
“I have been informed by my department that more than 30,000 people have died in Kashmir,” Tariq Mahmmod, communications minister for the Himalayan region, told The Associated Press.
In Kashmir, the quake flattened dozens of villages and towns, crushing schools and mud-brick houses. The dead included 250 girls at a school razed to the ground and more than 200 Pakistani soldiers on duty in the Himalayas.
Pakistan’s army called the earthquake the country’s worst-ever disaster and appealed for urgent help. Rival India, the United States, the United Nations, Britain, Russia, China, Turkey, Japan and Germany all offered assistance.
Desperate search through the debris
Near the ruins of the school, at least a dozen bodies were strewn on the streets of Balakot, a devastated village of about 30,000 just west of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir where the earthquake struck shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday.
The worst-hit city in Pakistani Kashmir was its capital, Muzaffarabad, where 11,000 died, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said. He also said 42,397 were injured.
Helicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas on Sunday. But landslides and rain hindered rescue efforts, blocking roads to some remote areas.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf appealed to the international community to help with relief efforts. He appealed for medicine, tents, cargo helicopters and financial assistance.
“We do seek international assistance. We have enough manpower but we need financial support ... to cope with the tragedy,” Musharraf said. He said supplies were needed “to reach out to the people in far-flung and cut-off areas.” The president spoke in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad, before leaving on a tour of devastated areas.
'The worst disaster in Pakistan’s history'
The quake was felt across a wide swath of South Asia from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh. It swayed buildings in the capitals of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, an area stretching across some 625 miles across. In Islamabad, a 10-story building collapsed.
“We are handling the worst disaster in Pakistan’s history,” chief army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.
Authorities in India reported 360 deaths and 900 people injured, while Afghanistan reported four killed.
On Sunday, Pakistani military helicopters ferried troops and supplies to some hard-hit areas. But there was no sign of government help in Balakot. The quake leveled the village’s main bazaar, crushing shoppers and strewing gas cylinders, bricks, tomatoes and onions on the streets.
Injured people covered by shawls lay in the street, waiting for medical care. Residents carried bodies on wooden planks. The corpses of four children, aged between four and six, lay under a sheet of corrugated iron. Relatives said they were trying to find sheets to wrap the bodies.
“We don’t have anything to bury them with,” said a cousin, Saqib Swati.
Nearby, Faizan Farooq, a 19-year-old business administration student, stood outside the rubble of his four-story school, where at least 250 pupils were feared trapped. Dozens of villagers, some with sledgehammers but many without any tools, pulled at the debris and carried away bodies.
Farooq said that he could hear children under the rubble crying for help immediately after the disaster on Saturday.
“Now there’s no sign of life,” he said. “We can’t do this without the army’s help. Nobody has come here to help us.”
A 40-year-old man at the scene wept. He said four of his children were buried in the debris.
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