I am on a mailing list that emails me everytime there is a significant earthquake anywhere in the world (I believe 3.0 or bigger.)So this morning when I woke up and saw 10 emails for earthquakes over 3.0 in Pakistan all I could think was... "oh shit.."This from Reuters: Big quake hits subcontinent; thousands feared dead
Sat Oct 8, 2005 10:28 PM IST
By Simon Cameron-Moore
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A big earthquake struck northern Pakistan and India on Saturday, killing hundreds and possibly thousands, with two apartment blocks in the Pakistani capital reduced to ruins and reports of mountain villages wiped out.
The 7.6 magnitude earthquake was the strongest in memory.
"The deaths could be running in the thousands. We do not have an exact figure for casualties at this moment, but it's massive," Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman, Major-General Shaukat Sultan, said after an aerial survey of stricken areas.
The earthquake struck at 0350 GMT and was centred in forest-clad mountains of Pakistani Kashmir, near the Indian border, about 95 km northeast of Islamabad.
The first quake was followed by 18 aftershocks of magnitudes of between 4.6 and 6.3 over the next 10 hours.
They were felt across the subcontinent, shaking buildings in the Afghan, Indian and Bangladeshi capitals.
The U.S. Geological Survey described the quake as major, saying it took place at a depth of 10 km.
Pledges of international support started to come in within hours, but details of the damage were difficult to obtain because telephone lines were down, mobile networks were overwhelmed and relief efforts were hampered by both landslides and heavy rain.
"Because the damages have been mostly in far-flung areas, it is difficult for the rescue teams to reach those areas," Sultan said.
Helicopters were flying teams into some areas, he said.
A police officer said at least 500 people were killed and more than 1,700 were injured in the Mansehra district of Pakistan's North West Frontier, where several villages were believed to have been reduced to rubble.
The Karakoram Highway linking Pakistan with western China was blocked in several places and Pakistan's remote Northern Areas had suffered extensive damage.
But the worst-hit area appeared to be Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, an area long disputed by Islamabad and New Delhi, wit its capital, Muzaffarabad, particularly hard hit.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told Reuters the Kashmir government had told him that casualties were already in the hundreds and could reach 1,000.
"A number of villages in Kashmir were wiped out ... We are facing difficulties in reaching those areas as most of the roads there are either blocked or wiped out by the landslides," Sherpao said.
The main road into Kashmir from Pakistan was blocked by landslides.
Oxfam Humanitarian Response Coordinator Raphael Sindaye said worsening weather could hamper the relief effort.
"Winter is drawing in ... winterised tents and blankets will be urgently needed," Sindaye said, after a meeting of aid agencies in Islamabad.
MUTILATED BODIES, PEOPLE CRUSHED
On the Indian side of Kashmir, police said the earthquake had killed 213 people and injured hundreds.
Half of the deaths were in Uri, the last big town on the road connecting the two sides of the violence-scarred region. The dead included 15 soldiers, some in bunkers close to the military ceasefire line between India and Pakistan.
Landslides also blocked the 300-km road that connects Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, to the rest of India to the south.
The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road linking Indian and Pakistani Kashmir -- reopened this year to traffic for the first time in nearly 60 years -- was also blocked.
In Islamabad, scores of people were feared killed or trapped in two multi-storey apartment blocks that were reduced to rubble.
"I've seen mutilated bodies, I've seen people alive but crushed," said a Pakistani army officer, taking a break from the rescue, who gave his name as Captain Asam.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf visited the scene and said the quake was a test for the country.
Residents struggled to shift heavy concrete with bare hands.
"The quake jolted me awake and I saw people running down the staircase," said Sabahat Ahmed, a resident of one of the blocks. "By the time the second tremor hit, the building had already started to collapse.
"As the building was collapsing people were still coming out from it."
The initial quake lasted for about a minute and sent people fleeing from their homes in Islamabad. Minutes later, sirens could be heard as emergency vehicles began racing through the city of close to a million.
A girl was killed in Afghanistan but authorities said the country appeared to have escaped the worst.
(Additional reporting by Robert Birsel in Islamabad, Kamil Zaheer in Baramulla, Y.P. Rajesh in New Delhi and David Brunnstrom in Kabul)
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
