South Asia earthquake kills at least 30,000 (Agencies) Updated: 2005-10-10 05:57
BALAKOT, Pakistan: Villagers dug with bare hands into collapsed schools and
homes yesterday in a desperate search for survivors of a huge earthquake that
has killed 30,000 in South Asia, with Pakistan calling it the country's
worst-ever disaster and appealing for urgent help.
Pakistani rescue workers
remove a dead body from rubble of 10-story apartment building that
collapsed in the 7.6 magnitude earthquake a day earlier, Sunday, Oct. 9,
2005 in Islamabad, Pakistan. [AP] |
The vast majority of the deaths from Saturday's 7.6-magnitude quake were in
Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, though several hundred were also reported in
India-controlled Kashmir.
"I have been informed by my department that more than 30,000 people have died
in Kashmir," said Tariq Mahmmod, the communications minister in
Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Dozens of villages were flattened in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, killing
farmers, soldiers and schoolchildren, and triggering landslides that blocked
rescuers from many devastated areas.
Two survivors were pulled from a destroyed apartment building in Pakistan's
capital.
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