MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 8: Over 1,000 people were killed and about 4,000 were buried in the rubble of buildings and houses after a massive quake hit Muzaffarabad and vast areas of Azad Kashmir on Saturday.
Heavy rain created hurdles in relief activities and most of the dead could not be buried.
The Aiwan Wazir-i-Azam, the secretariat, parts of the central city, the combined military hospital, the Radio Colony, the old campus of the university and at least 75 buildings near Chehla Bandi collapsed.
About 1,000 corpses were taken out of the debris, while 4,000 people were still trapped, officials said.
At least 200 children died when the building of the Nirol Girls High School collapsed and about 300 children were trapped in the debris of Rizwan Public School.
OXFAM: Azad Kashmir was the area most severely affected by the earthquake which hit the subcontinent and aid was needed immediately as winter was setting in, aid agency Oxfam said.
“It is becoming clear that the most affected area is Pakistan-administered Kashmir where five out of seven divisions are severely affected,” Raphael Sindaye, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Response Coordinator in Islamabad, said in a statement.
“Oxfam has started an assessment in three of these five areas with teams already on the ground,” said the statement, issued after a meeting of all the international aid agencies responding to the earthquake.
“Winter is drawing in in the region and night-time temperatures are already dropping. Winterized tents and blankets will be urgently needed,” it said.—Agencies
