PESHAWAR, Oct 11: Teams of the International Rescue Committee arrived on Monday in the quake-devastated districts of Mansehra, Shangla, Batagram and Abbotabad to start providing aid to survivors.

According to a press release issued on Tuesday, the three teams, which include emergency shelter, water, sanitation and trauma specialists, are also helping local residents clear debris to rescue survivors.

“In Abottabad and Manshera, International Rescue Committee staff members were so stunned by the scale of the disaster they paused to donate their own blood for survivors needing transfusions,” said Heng Djin Tjik, the International Rescue Committee’s deputy director of programmes in Pakistan.

The International Rescue Committee has deployed doctors, paramedics and stocks of medicines to support overwhelmed hospitals in these areas and three trauma counsellors are in place to aid victims, particularly women and children. In Abbottabad district, International Rescue Committee staff volunteered at local hospitals which are jam-packed with injured people.

Mudslides have blocked access and slowed aid to disaster-hit Battagram.

“The situation in Battagram is horrifying with bodies lying all around. There is dire need for more rescue teams, medical aid and shelter materials,” said Suleman Khan, the International Rescue Committee’s emergency response manager in the field.

An International Rescue Committee assessment team is in the badly-affected city of Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir, assessing emergency needs of the the population there.

The committee is continuing to coordinate with local officials to reach remote areas and will vastly expand medical assistance, psycho-social services and distribution of emergency supplies in the coming days.