Powerful earthquake hits Pakistan, Afghanistan, India
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A 7-6.-magnitude earthquake rocked parts of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan on Saturday, and part of a 19-story building collapsed in Islamabad.
There was no immediate word on casualties. Rescue workers were on the scene.
In the Pakistani city of Lahore said at least eight people were injured and four shops were damaged, police said.
In Islamabad, buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute at 8:50 a.m. local time. Panicked people ran out of homes and offices in many cities. Slight tremors continued afterward.
The U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site that the quake had a magnitude of 7.6 and that its epicenter was 58 miles north-northeast of Islamabad. It said the quake was about six miles deep.
Arif Mahmood, a seismological official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said the earthquake was felt in many parts of Pakistan.
Local television said the quake caused panic in Islamabad, as well as nearby Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta near the Afghan border.
Residents in the Afghan capital, Kabul, also felt the temblor, fleeing their homes for fear they would collapse.
"We are calling all our officials in the provinces. But we haven't received any reports yet of casualties," said Saed Jawad Qanah, an official in Kabul with the disaster department of the Red Crescent Society.
The tremor also affected northern India.
''It was so strong that I saw buildings swaying. It was terrifying," said Hari Singh, a guard in an apartment complex in the New Delhi suburb of Noida. Hundreds of residents there raced down from their apartments after their beds and couches started shaking.
Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002547481_webquake07.html
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Report from USGS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2005/usdyae/
BREAKING NEWS - 7.6 magnitude earthquake Northern Pakistan
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chicagopizza wrote:I hope those estimates are wrong. So sad for people over there. What a terrifying experience.
Unfortunately, they are not. The "structures" in that region(away from Islamabad) are very very weak... I would be surprised if "only" a few thousand were dead. The Kashmir region is going to be especially hard hit.
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Unfortunately the 1000 estimate was wrong. The death toll estimate now stands at more than 3000. 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,171646,00.html
Over 3,000 Feared Dead in Asian Quake
Saturday, October 08, 2005
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake (search) near the Pakistan-India border Saturday reduced villages to rubble, triggered landslides and flattened an apartment building. More than 3,000 people were killed in both nations, and a Pakistan (search) army spokesman called the devastation "a national tragedy."
The toll included 250 girls who died when their school in northwestern Pakistan collapsed. Another 500 students were injured, said Ataullah Khan Wazir, police chief in the northwestern district of Mansehra.
In the capitals of Pakistan, India (search) and Afghanistan (search), buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute, and panicked people ran from their homes and offices. Tremors continued for hours afterward. Communications throughout the region were cut.
About 1,000 people were killed in Pakistani Kashmir (search), said Sardar Mohammed Anwar, the top government official in the area. The army said 200 soldiers there were killed.
"This is my conservative guess, and the death toll could be much higher," Anwar told Pakistan's Aaj television station.
He said most homes in Muzaffarabad (search), the area's capital, were damaged, and schools and hospitals had collapsed.
At least 1,600 people died in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, said the province's top elected official, Akram Durani.
The U.S. Geological Survey (search) 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 Pakistani Kashmir.
"The damage and casualties could be massive and it is a national tragedy," chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press. "This is the worst earthquake in recent times."
Damage was extensive in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan.
Officials in the Indian-controlled portion reported at least 250 people killed, including 20 soldiers who perished in a landslide. At least 850 people were injured and about 2,700 homes were destroyed or damaged across Jammu-Kashmir, said senior state official B.B. Vyas.
Army soldiers and local volunteers were rescuing people from under the debris of collapsed houses. Telephone lines were down. Bridges had developed cracks, but traffic was passing over them.
The USGS reported at least five aftershocks in Pakistan, with the strongest measuring magnitude 6.3 and located about 70 miles north of Islamabad (search).
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf (search) and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz (search) ordered the military to extend "all-out help" to quake-hit areas and appealed to the nation to stay calm. Helicopters took troops to damaged areas, but landslides were hindering rescue efforts.
Musharraf, walking through the rubble in Islamabad, said the air force was deploying C-130 transport planes and 10 helicopters to devastated areas.
Aziz told the British Broadcasting Corp. that Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars, had not had any official contacts about rescue efforts.
"We have a lot to do on each side," he said. "If there is need to coordinate something, the channels are open on both sides."
In eastern Afghanistan, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, said police official Gafar Khan.
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara said the quake was felt at Bagram (search), the main American base in Afghanistan, but he had no reports of damage at bases around the country.
Maj. Richard McNorton, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command (search), said there were no reports of quake-related injuries among the more than 18,000 American forces in Afghanistan.
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," he said. "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, one of which was splattered with blood. One rescue worker said he heard faint cries from people trapped in the rubble.
In Abbotabad, north of Islamabad, dozens of quake victims and other patients, some hooked up to intravenous drips, lay on the lawn of the city hospital after officials said aftershocks made it unsafe to stay inside. Hospital staff used loudspeakers to ask the public for food and other relief supplies.
One of the injured was 8-year-old Qadeer, whose father, a farmer named Jehangir, said the only buildings left standing in their village were a mosque and a school. Qadeer lay unconscious, his right leg heavily bandaged.
Sultan said the worst-hit areas were in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, including Muzaffarabad, the regional capital, and the towns of Bagh and Rawalakot. The districts of Batagram, Balakot, Mansehra, Abbottabad and Patan in northwestern Pakistan also suffered serious damage, he said.
Dozens of homes, schools, mosques and government offices were damaged, and hundreds of injured people were taken to hospitals.
In India's portion of Kashmir, two main highways were closed because of landslides triggered by the quake, and relief material was being flown to some areas, said Vijay Bakaya, Jammu-Kashmir state's chief secretary.
At least 400 tents were flown by helicopter to Uri and Tangdar to provide temporary shelter in the freezing Himalayan foothills, officials said. Teams of doctors and Red Cross volunteers were traveling by road and on foot to remote mountainous areas, Bakaya said.
All hospitals in the state have been put on alert and medical staff recalled, he said.
Power has been restored to hospitals, but telephone, water and electricity supplies were still disrupted across much of the state.
"Our first priority is to help affected families, deliver relief and assess the loss so that further help can be provided," Bakaya said.
In Kunzru village, near Srinagar, almost the entire village of 200 homes was flattened.
"The floor started shaking, and everything turned upside down," villager Ghulam Mohi-udin Khan said from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for a fractured leg.
His wife lay on an adjacent cot, her head in bandages from a head wound caused by falling masonry as their house collapsed.
Many Kunzru residents sat in the open fields waiting for relief to reach them.
The temblor also was felt near India's capital.
"It was so strong that I saw buildings swaying. It was terrifying," said Hari Singh, a guard in an apartment complex in a suburb of New Delhi. Hundreds of residents raced down from their apartments after their furniture started shaking.
The quake also jolted parts of Bangladesh (search), but no casualties or damages were reported.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,171646,00.html
Over 3,000 Feared Dead in Asian Quake
Saturday, October 08, 2005
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake (search) near the Pakistan-India border Saturday reduced villages to rubble, triggered landslides and flattened an apartment building. More than 3,000 people were killed in both nations, and a Pakistan (search) army spokesman called the devastation "a national tragedy."
The toll included 250 girls who died when their school in northwestern Pakistan collapsed. Another 500 students were injured, said Ataullah Khan Wazir, police chief in the northwestern district of Mansehra.
In the capitals of Pakistan, India (search) and Afghanistan (search), buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute, and panicked people ran from their homes and offices. Tremors continued for hours afterward. Communications throughout the region were cut.
About 1,000 people were killed in Pakistani Kashmir (search), said Sardar Mohammed Anwar, the top government official in the area. The army said 200 soldiers there were killed.
"This is my conservative guess, and the death toll could be much higher," Anwar told Pakistan's Aaj television station.
He said most homes in Muzaffarabad (search), the area's capital, were damaged, and schools and hospitals had collapsed.
At least 1,600 people died in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, said the province's top elected official, Akram Durani.
The U.S. Geological Survey (search) 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 Pakistani Kashmir.
"The damage and casualties could be massive and it is a national tragedy," chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press. "This is the worst earthquake in recent times."
Damage was extensive in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan.
Officials in the Indian-controlled portion reported at least 250 people killed, including 20 soldiers who perished in a landslide. At least 850 people were injured and about 2,700 homes were destroyed or damaged across Jammu-Kashmir, said senior state official B.B. Vyas.
Army soldiers and local volunteers were rescuing people from under the debris of collapsed houses. Telephone lines were down. Bridges had developed cracks, but traffic was passing over them.
The USGS reported at least five aftershocks in Pakistan, with the strongest measuring magnitude 6.3 and located about 70 miles north of Islamabad (search).
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf (search) and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz (search) ordered the military to extend "all-out help" to quake-hit areas and appealed to the nation to stay calm. Helicopters took troops to damaged areas, but landslides were hindering rescue efforts.
Musharraf, walking through the rubble in Islamabad, said the air force was deploying C-130 transport planes and 10 helicopters to devastated areas.
Aziz told the British Broadcasting Corp. that Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars, had not had any official contacts about rescue efforts.
"We have a lot to do on each side," he said. "If there is need to coordinate something, the channels are open on both sides."
In eastern Afghanistan, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, said police official Gafar Khan.
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara said the quake was felt at Bagram (search), the main American base in Afghanistan, but he had no reports of damage at bases around the country.
Maj. Richard McNorton, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command (search), said there were no reports of quake-related injuries among the more than 18,000 American forces in Afghanistan.
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," he said. "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, one of which was splattered with blood. One rescue worker said he heard faint cries from people trapped in the rubble.
In Abbotabad, north of Islamabad, dozens of quake victims and other patients, some hooked up to intravenous drips, lay on the lawn of the city hospital after officials said aftershocks made it unsafe to stay inside. Hospital staff used loudspeakers to ask the public for food and other relief supplies.
One of the injured was 8-year-old Qadeer, whose father, a farmer named Jehangir, said the only buildings left standing in their village were a mosque and a school. Qadeer lay unconscious, his right leg heavily bandaged.
Sultan said the worst-hit areas were in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, including Muzaffarabad, the regional capital, and the towns of Bagh and Rawalakot. The districts of Batagram, Balakot, Mansehra, Abbottabad and Patan in northwestern Pakistan also suffered serious damage, he said.
Dozens of homes, schools, mosques and government offices were damaged, and hundreds of injured people were taken to hospitals.
In India's portion of Kashmir, two main highways were closed because of landslides triggered by the quake, and relief material was being flown to some areas, said Vijay Bakaya, Jammu-Kashmir state's chief secretary.
At least 400 tents were flown by helicopter to Uri and Tangdar to provide temporary shelter in the freezing Himalayan foothills, officials said. Teams of doctors and Red Cross volunteers were traveling by road and on foot to remote mountainous areas, Bakaya said.
All hospitals in the state have been put on alert and medical staff recalled, he said.
Power has been restored to hospitals, but telephone, water and electricity supplies were still disrupted across much of the state.
"Our first priority is to help affected families, deliver relief and assess the loss so that further help can be provided," Bakaya said.
In Kunzru village, near Srinagar, almost the entire village of 200 homes was flattened.
"The floor started shaking, and everything turned upside down," villager Ghulam Mohi-udin Khan said from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for a fractured leg.
His wife lay on an adjacent cot, her head in bandages from a head wound caused by falling masonry as their house collapsed.
Many Kunzru residents sat in the open fields waiting for relief to reach them.
The temblor also was felt near India's capital.
"It was so strong that I saw buildings swaying. It was terrifying," said Hari Singh, a guard in an apartment complex in a suburb of New Delhi. Hundreds of residents raced down from their apartments after their furniture started shaking.
The quake also jolted parts of Bangladesh (search), but no casualties or damages were reported.
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Quake Kills More Than 18,000 in South Asia
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, October 8, 2005
(10-08) 20:37 PDT ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) --
A powerful earthquake triggered landslides, flattened entire villages of mud-brick homes and toppled a 10-story apartment building on Saturday, killing more than 18,000 people as it devastated a mountainous swath touching Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
The casualty toll from the 7.6-magnitude tremor rose sharply Sunday as rescuers struggled to dig people from the wreckage, their work made more difficult as rain and hail turned dirt and debris into sticky muck. Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesman, told Pakistan's Geo TV network early Sunday that more than 18,000 had been killed — 17,000 of them in Pakistani Kashmir, where the quake was centered. Some 41,000 people were injured, he said.
For hours, aftershocks rattled an area stretching from Afghanistan across northern Pakistan into India's portion of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Hospitals moved quake victims onto lawns, fearing tremors could cause more damage.
The earthquake, which struck just before 9 a.m. Saturday, caused buildings to sway for about a minute in the capitals of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, an area some 625 miles across. Panicked people ran from homes and offices, and communications were cut to many areas.
Most of the devastation occurred in the mountains of northern Pakistan, where the dead included 250 girls crushed at a school and 200 soldiers on duty in the Himalayas.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of the capital, Islamabad, in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir, and was followed by 22 aftershocks, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor.
"It is a national tragedy," Sultan said earlier. "This is the worst earthquake in recent times."
In Mansehra, a shopowner named Haji Fazal Ilahi stood vigil over the body of his 14-year-old daughter, which lay under a sheet on a hospital mattress. He said his wife, another daughter and a brother also died when the family's house fell.
"I could see rocks and homes tumbling down the mountains," said Ilahi, who was driving to his village of Garlat when the quake struck. "When I reached my village, there was nothing left of my home."
India's government offered condolences and assistance to Pakistan, a longtime rival with which it has been pursuing peace efforts after fighting three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.
"While parts of India have also suffered from this unexpected natural disaster, we are prepared to extend any assistance with rescue and relief which you may deem appropriate," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a message to Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
India reported at least 340 people killed injured when the quake collapsed 2,700 houses and other buildings in Jammu-Kashmir state. Most of the deaths occurred in the border towns of Uri, Tangdar and Punch and in the city of Srinagar, said B.B. Vyas, the state's divisional commissioner.
Ataullah Khan Wazir, police chief in the northwestern district of Mansehra, said authorities there pulled the bodies of 250 students from the wreckage of one girls' school in the village of Ghari Habibibullah. About 500 students were injured, he said.
Dozens of children were feared killed in other schools.
Mansehra, about 90 miles northwest of the capital, was believed to be a hotbed of Islamic militant activity during the time the Taliban religious militia ruled neighboring Afghanistan. Al-Qaida operatives trained suicide squads at a camp there, Afghan and Pakistani sources told The Associated Press in 2002.
Afghanistan appeared to suffer the least damage. In its east, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, police official Gafar Khan said.
A 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 United Nations said it was working with Pakistan, Afghanistan and India on an emergency response to the quake.
President Bush offered condolences, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was ready to help.
"At this difficult time, the United States stands with its friends in Pakistan and India, just as they stood with us and offered assistance after Hurricane Katrina," Rice said in a statement.
In Pakistan, 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.
Helicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas, but landslides and rain hindered rescue efforts.
The only serious damage reported in Pakistan's capital was the collapse of a 10-story apartment building, where at least 10 people were killed and 126 were injured. Hospital doctors said the dead included an Egyptian diplomat, and the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said two Japanese were killed.
A man named Rehmatullah who lived near the apartment building said dust enveloped the wreckage.
"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," he said. "We pulled out one man by cutting off his legs."
"It was like hell," added Nauman Ali, who lives in a nearby building. "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, one of which was splattered with blood. One rescue worker said he heard faint cries from people trapped in the rubble.
In Abbotabad, north of Islamabad, dozens of injured quake victims and other patients lay on the lawn of the city hospital as staff with loudspeakers appealed to the public for food and other relief supplies.
One of the injured was an 8-year-old boy, Qadeer, whose father, a farmer named Jehangir, said the only buildings left standing in their village were a mosque and a school. Qadeer lay unconscious, his right leg heavily bandaged.
Authorities laid out dozens of bodies under sheets in a damaged sports stadium in Muzaffarabad.
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, October 8, 2005
(10-08) 20:37 PDT ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) --
A powerful earthquake triggered landslides, flattened entire villages of mud-brick homes and toppled a 10-story apartment building on Saturday, killing more than 18,000 people as it devastated a mountainous swath touching Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
The casualty toll from the 7.6-magnitude tremor rose sharply Sunday as rescuers struggled to dig people from the wreckage, their work made more difficult as rain and hail turned dirt and debris into sticky muck. Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesman, told Pakistan's Geo TV network early Sunday that more than 18,000 had been killed — 17,000 of them in Pakistani Kashmir, where the quake was centered. Some 41,000 people were injured, he said.
For hours, aftershocks rattled an area stretching from Afghanistan across northern Pakistan into India's portion of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Hospitals moved quake victims onto lawns, fearing tremors could cause more damage.
The earthquake, which struck just before 9 a.m. Saturday, caused buildings to sway for about a minute in the capitals of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, an area some 625 miles across. Panicked people ran from homes and offices, and communications were cut to many areas.
Most of the devastation occurred in the mountains of northern Pakistan, where the dead included 250 girls crushed at a school and 200 soldiers on duty in the Himalayas.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of the capital, Islamabad, in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir, and was followed by 22 aftershocks, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor.
"It is a national tragedy," Sultan said earlier. "This is the worst earthquake in recent times."
In Mansehra, a shopowner named Haji Fazal Ilahi stood vigil over the body of his 14-year-old daughter, which lay under a sheet on a hospital mattress. He said his wife, another daughter and a brother also died when the family's house fell.
"I could see rocks and homes tumbling down the mountains," said Ilahi, who was driving to his village of Garlat when the quake struck. "When I reached my village, there was nothing left of my home."
India's government offered condolences and assistance to Pakistan, a longtime rival with which it has been pursuing peace efforts after fighting three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.
"While parts of India have also suffered from this unexpected natural disaster, we are prepared to extend any assistance with rescue and relief which you may deem appropriate," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a message to Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
India reported at least 340 people killed injured when the quake collapsed 2,700 houses and other buildings in Jammu-Kashmir state. Most of the deaths occurred in the border towns of Uri, Tangdar and Punch and in the city of Srinagar, said B.B. Vyas, the state's divisional commissioner.
Ataullah Khan Wazir, police chief in the northwestern district of Mansehra, said authorities there pulled the bodies of 250 students from the wreckage of one girls' school in the village of Ghari Habibibullah. About 500 students were injured, he said.
Dozens of children were feared killed in other schools.
Mansehra, about 90 miles northwest of the capital, was believed to be a hotbed of Islamic militant activity during the time the Taliban religious militia ruled neighboring Afghanistan. Al-Qaida operatives trained suicide squads at a camp there, Afghan and Pakistani sources told The Associated Press in 2002.
Afghanistan appeared to suffer the least damage. In its east, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, police official Gafar Khan said.
A 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 United Nations said it was working with Pakistan, Afghanistan and India on an emergency response to the quake.
President Bush offered condolences, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was ready to help.
"At this difficult time, the United States stands with its friends in Pakistan and India, just as they stood with us and offered assistance after Hurricane Katrina," Rice said in a statement.
In Pakistan, 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.
Helicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas, but landslides and rain hindered rescue efforts.
The only serious damage reported in Pakistan's capital was the collapse of a 10-story apartment building, where at least 10 people were killed and 126 were injured. Hospital doctors said the dead included an Egyptian diplomat, and the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said two Japanese were killed.
A man named Rehmatullah who lived near the apartment building said dust enveloped the wreckage.
"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," he said. "We pulled out one man by cutting off his legs."
"It was like hell," added Nauman Ali, who lives in a nearby building. "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, one of which was splattered with blood. One rescue worker said he heard faint cries from people trapped in the rubble.
In Abbotabad, north of Islamabad, dozens of injured quake victims and other patients lay on the lawn of the city hospital as staff with loudspeakers appealed to the public for food and other relief supplies.
One of the injured was an 8-year-old boy, Qadeer, whose father, a farmer named Jehangir, said the only buildings left standing in their village were a mosque and a school. Qadeer lay unconscious, his right leg heavily bandaged.
Authorities laid out dozens of bodies under sheets in a damaged sports stadium in Muzaffarabad.
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