Powerful quake S. Asia

Powerful quake S. Asia

Christopher Torchia, Associated Press, Islamabad

A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake near the Pakistan-India
border Saturday reduced villages to rubble, triggered landslides
and flattened an apartment building, killing hundreds of people
in both nations. Pakistan's army called the devastation "a
national tragedy."

In the capitals of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, 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.

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

"It is a national tragedy," Sultan said. "This is the worst
earthquake in recent times."

The U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site that the quake
hit at 8:50 a.m. local time and had a magnitude of 7.6. It was
centered about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Islamabad
in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir.

Damage was extensive in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan
territory divided between India and Pakistan. Officials in the
Indian-controlled portion reported at least 190 people killed,
including 20 soldiers who perished in a landslide. At least 800
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
(110 kilometers) north of Islamabad.

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.
Helicopters took troops to damaged areas, but landslides were
hindering rescue efforts.

At least 500 people died and 1,700 were injured in four quake-
hit districts in northwestern Pakistan, said provincial police
chief Rifat Pasha. He said the toll could rise because rescue
teams were still working in areas that were hit hard by the
temblor.

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," 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 initially heard faint cries
from people trapped in the rubble.

In Abbotabad, north of Islamabad, dozens of injured 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 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.

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.

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.

"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 India's capital, New Delhi. Hundreds of residents
raced down from their apartments after their furniture started
shaking.

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