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Hundreds dead in powerful Asian earthquake
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-08 19:53
Patients and their attendants wait outside a
hospital after an earthquake hit the northern Indian city of Jammu, October 8,
2005.[Reuters]
Damage was extensive in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory divided
between India and Pakistan. Officials in the Indian-controlled portion 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."
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