ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: Pakistani rescue workers have pulled an 18-month-old girl alive from rubble six days after the deadly quake struck the region. The unconscious toddler was revived after being found in Balimang in the NWFP, according to a BBC report.
The news came as foreign rescue workers announced that they were winding up rescue operations, fearing no-one else would be found alive.
United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said the harsh reality was that survivors were now unlikely to be found.
“First there is the search and rescue phase that is now ending,” Mr Egeland told a press conference. “It is a cruel reality.”
“There are always some miracles; children you find two or three weeks after. But you can see days three and four when we really came to full steam that we really found people, days five and six there were much fewer and day seven we don’t know if there will be anyone,” he said.
British rescuer Stuart Downes, who was preparing to leave Muzaffarabad, said a combination of timing and temperatures painted a bleak picture for anyone who had survived the quake but been trapped in the rubble.
“This is day seven. With the low temperatures, the chances of survival are very minimal. Now we’ll assist the people who are alive,” he said.
But Pakistan’s chief military spokesman said no decision had been made to end the search for survivors.
“We have not lost hope for survivors to be found. Relentless efforts continue to rescue the survivors and, at the same time, relief efforts are in full swing,” Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told AFP.
Thousands of bodies remain beneath the rubble across northern Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, including many hundreds of children who were buried alive at their desks when their schools collapsed.
Pakistani and UN officials have said the death toll is sure to increase significantly as the rubble is cleared.
“We have moved from search and rescue to search and recovery,” said Major Farooq Nasir, the spokesman for the army’s emergency relief operations in Muzaffarabad.—AFP
