PESHAWAR, Oct 8: Over 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of others injured in a massive earthquake which hit several parts of the NWFP on Saturday, a police officer said.

Thousands of families were rendered homeless and were without food and medicine, provincial police chief Riffat Pasha said.

“The situation is very bad,” he told Dawn from Abbottabad, one of the most severely affected areas.

“There is no water, no food and no shelter. There are bodies lying all around. There is bad news from everywhere,” Mr Pasha said.

Balakot, a town of about 250,000 people, appeared to be the hardest hit.

“It has been completely devastated. The chief minister flew over the town and there was hardly any building left standing,” the police chief said.

He said he had reports of over 1,000 people dead, among them hundreds of schoolchildren buried when roofs of school buildings caved in.

According to the central control room here, the death toll reported from different parts of the province stood at 1,660, while another 1,135 had been reported wounded.

“We have no means of checking the figures. Roads are blocked due to landslides and all information we are getting is through the word of mouth,” an official said.

Dawn photographer Abdul Majeed Goraya who flew over the area with an army team in a helicopter said the situation had been made worse by heavy rains and hailstorm.

“It’s cold out here and people are lying in the open without shelter or food. There are heavy landslides and the earthquake has caused mountains to crack up,” he reported from the area.

Mr Pasha said the casualty figure was set to rise and rescue teams would reach the devastated area on Sunday.

Officials said the earthquake caused widespread damage in Shangla, Kaghan, Batagram, Balakot, Shinkiari, Garhi Habibullah, Abbottabad and Mansehra and many villages were wiped out.

Witnesses said bodies were lying on the road and in open places in the hilly areas and terrified people were not returning to their homes due to continuing aftershocks.

The quake also damaged telecommunication facilities and the region was cut off from the rest of the country.

Heavy rains were reported from Abbottabad and other parts of the Hazara region.

Witnesses said Balakot, Batal and nearby localities were severely affected and hundreds of people were under the rubble.

Officials said at least 378 people had been killed in Mansehra, while a large number of houses and government buildings had collapsed or were damaged.

Several villages had been wiped out, locals in Mansehra said.

Mr Pasha said at least 250 schoolchildren were killed when the building of their school in Garhi Habibullah caved in.

According to agencies, 500 bodies were still under the debris of a school building that collapsed.

Another 50 children were killed in Gul Mera in the same district.

About 100 people, many of them children, were killed in Bakot area, an official said.

In Shangla, 179 bodies had been recovered and at least 285 people were wounded.

Rashid Javed adds from Abbottabad: The district administration declared emergency in the Ayub Medical Complex and makeshift wards were set up for affected people.

Eyewitnesses said eight buildings, including a hotel and a shopping centre, collapsed and 40 shops were damaged in the city. A portion of the high court circuit bench building also collapsed.

The earthquake struck at around 8.55am, but it took the government several hours to organize rescue activities because of lack of logistic and communication facilities and a relief plan.

The affected people were in dire need of aid.

In Battagram, officials said they had yet to receive figures of casualties but the earthquake had damaged 75 per cent of the mud-houses in the district.

There were reports of widespread damage in Ogi, Shinkiari, Kaghan and Naran.

In Haripur, one person was killed and five others wounded.

Officials said five people were killed and 20 wounded in Swat and two were killed in Buner district.

The army said hundreds of troops had been dispatched from the provincial capital and other stations to the affected areas to take part in the rescue operation.

Two helicopters with doctors, engineers and medicines left Peshawar for Mansehra.

“Troops have been ordered to quickly move towards the tremor-hit areas,” said Col Zahid Hussain of the Inter-Services Public Relations.

The NWFP government has declared emergency in the quake-hit areas and educational institutions have been closed. Troops have been put on alert in Peshawar and other military bases to assist the local authorities.

The quake left nine people injured in Peshawar, according to hospital sources.

Aftershocks continued to rock Peshawar valley throughout the day, which prompted the administration to close schools, offices and financial institutions.

The Met office said over 60 aftershocks had been recorded by the seismic centre and more were expected.

In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, four people were killed and 19 others wounded in Bajaur Agency, while one person was killed and four injured in Orakzai Agency. A large number of mud-houses collapsed or were damaged.