Earthquake leaves 20,000 dead and huge numbers in need

Disaster assessment teams arriving in Pakistan on Sunday said very large numbers of people had been affected by Saturday’s devastating earthquake that killed more than 20,000 people, according to officials, in a belt stretching from Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into India. While parts of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir are among the worst hit areas, there are many reports of massive destruction across northern mountainous areas of Pakistan. “We are hearing reports of up to 80 and 90 percent of the affected areas’ buildings being destroyed. Given the population of four to five million in the area most badly hit, there is going to be a huge number of people in need of food, water and shelter,” Andrew Macleod, spokesman for the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team, said from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. President General Pervez Musharraf called the disaster the worst in the nation’s history and appealed for urgent international assistance. About 19,400 people were killed and more than 42,000 hurt in Pakistan, Reuters quoted interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, as saying, with the divided territory of Kashmir and its capital Muzaffarabad worst hit. But the communications minister for Pakistani Kashmir, Tariq Farooq, said the toll there alone could reach 30,000 as the focus so far had been only on the main towns, not mountain villages. At least another 600 people died in the Indian side of Kashmir, where many mud and stone houses were buried by landslides. Two rescue teams with sniffer dogs have arrived in Pakistan, one from Turkey, the other from the UK. At least another seven teams are on their way to try and help the thousands still trapped in collapsed buildings in hundreds of villages and isolated settlements in northern Pakistan. Rescuers are appealing urgently for helicopters to help reach areas cut off by the quake. “The first 72 hours are incredibly important and the areas this earthquake hit are incredibly inaccessible. A lot of roads have been cut by landslides. So we really do need a lot of air support here for a rapid rescue operation,” Macleod said. The US Geological Survey said the quake’s epicentre was about 110 km northeast of Islamabad, in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir, and was followed by 22 aftershocks.