MANSEHRA, Jan 4: At least 12 people, most of them children, died and hundreds others were hospitalised in the earthquake-hit areas of Mansehra due to severe cold.

Sources said that following snowfall in the mountainous areas of Mansehra, Battagram, Allai and Balakot the temperature plunged below zero. As a result, hundreds of people started suffering from fever and were admitted to hospitals.

A source in the health department told this correspondent that some eight children died at the District Headquarters Hospital, Mansehra, and two in Sichain in the last three weeks.

It has been learnt that the World Health Organisation is monitoring the situation on a day-to-day basis.

It has come to know that thousands of families who survived the earthquake are still living in makeshift and shelter houses and are extremely vulnerable to cold-related diseases.