Hundreds Dead by Powerful Earthquake in Pakistan
Pakistan Times Monitoring Desk

ISLAMABAD: A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake reduced villages to rubble in Pakistan and India on Saturday, killing hundreds of people. Pakistan's army described the damage as widespread and said it included villages buried in quake-induced landslides.

A private news channel of Pakistan quoted Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the Pakistani army's chief spokesman, as saying 1,000 people were feared dead. Pakistani army officials who flew over quake-hit areas reported seeing hundreds of flattened homes in villages north of the capital Islamabad.

"The damage and casualties could be massive and it is a national tragedy," Sultan said. "The is the worst earthquake in recent times."

The U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site the quake hit at 8:50 a.m. local time and had a magnitude of 7.6. It was centered about 60 miles northeast of Islamabad in the forested mountains of Azad Kashmir.

Damage was extensive in the Himalayan State of Jammu & Kashmir. Officials in the India held-Kashmir reported 157 killed, including 14 soldiers who perished in a landslide. At least 600 were injured.

Air force and army soldiers helped civilian authorities rescue people trapped under buildings. Telephone lines were down. Bridges had developed cracks, but traffic was passing over them.

At least 100 people died in Mansehra district in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, and 70 percent of mud-brick homes in quake-hit areas collapsed, said Asif Iqbal, the provincial information minister. Casualty tolls from other districts were being compiled.

In eastern Afghanistan, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, said police official Gafar Khan.

The quake brought down a 10-story apartment building in Islamabad and dozens of people were feared trapped in the rubble. Rescuers pulled out at least 20 injured people. Some residents were Westerners, a building employee said.

A man named Rehmatullah who lived nearby said he saw dust from the buckled building from his bathroom window.

"I rushed down, and for some time you could not see anything because of the dust. Then we began to look for people in the rubble," said Rehmatullah, who only gave one name. "We pulled out one man by cutting off his legs."

"It was like hell," said Nauman Ali, who lived in a nearby top-floor apartment. "It was terrible. I was tossed up in my bed and the ceiling fan struck against the roof."

Aided by two large cranes, hundreds of police and soldiers helped remove chunks of concrete. A concrete slab was splattered with blood. One rescue worker said he initially heard faint cries from people trapped in the rubble.

Orders by President, PM

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered the military to extend all-out help to quake-hit areas and appealed to the nation to stay calm.

Pakistani troops and helicopters deployed to earthquake-hit areas. Landslides were hindering rescue efforts in some areas.

Sultan, the army spokesman, said the worst-hit areas were in Azad Kashmir, including Muzaffarabad, the capital, and the towns of Bagh and Rawalakot. The districts of Batagram, Balakot, Mansehra, Abbottabad and Patan in northwestern
Pakistan were also badly hit, he said.

Dozens of homes, schools, mosques and government offices were damaged in those areas, and hundreds of injured people were taken to hospitals.

In the capitals of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, buildings shook and walls swayed for about two minutes. Panicked people ran from their homes and offices. Tremors continued for hours afterward.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara said the quake was felt at Bagram, the main American base in Afghanistan, but he had no reports of damage at bases around the country.

The quake also jolted parts of Bangladesh, but no casualties or damage were reported there, so far.●