NationStates Jolt Archive

Thousands feared dead.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40887000/gif/_40887326_pakistan_quake_map416.gif

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/10/08/quake.pakistan/index.html

Death toll in Asian quake tops 800
Official says number of dead could reach into the thousands

(CNN) -- Darkness is hampering the search for survivors of Saturday's major earthquake that rocked south Asia.

The magnitude 7.6 quake, which has generated strong aftershocks, is feared to have caused thousands of deaths in Pakistan, India, the Pakistani- and Indian-administered areas of the disputed territory of Kashmir, and in Afghanistan.

The confirmed death toll now stands at 856.

With an epicenter 60 miles (about 95 kilometers) north-northeast of Islamabad near Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.

The effects of the quake -- estimated to be the most intense in the region -- rippled hundreds of miles away, striking remote but populous regions and felt in major cities, including Pakistan's capital of Islamabad, India's capital of New Delhi and the Pakistani city of Lahore.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and the country's prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, "expressed their profound grief over the tragic loss of life and damage to property as a result of the quake," according to a statement issued by the government.

Aziz, believes the death toll could surpass 1,000 in Pakistan alone.

The earthquake death toll in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir now stands at 545, authorities say.

That includes 350 in North-West Frontier province, 180 in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, and 15 in the Pakistani cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The figures come from police, the Interior Ministry and local hospitals.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, Vijay Bakaya, secretary to the chief minister, initially said at least 157 people were dead and 600 injured. Later, however, police in the area said the total was estimated at about 200. Bakaya said some 500 homes in the region had been destroyed.

In New Delhi, some 406 miles from Islamabad, buildings swayed and furniture moved, causing widespread panic among residents, many of whom rushed into the streets. The Indian government activated its national disaster plan.

Indian-controlled Kashmir is the Jammu-Kashmir state of India and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir is called Azad Kashmir, and the disputed territory is separated by a territorial border called the Line of Control.

The quake also killed one person in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. Some houses in the region reportedly collapsed. Damage and casualties were also reported in remote northeast Afghanistan.

Technical Sgt. Marina Evans, speaking for the U.S.-led coalition forces in Kabul, said the earthquake was felt in the Afghan capital of Kabul "but the effects were minimal. Items, on desks shook but nothing fell from the walls or shelves. No Coalition assets were damaged and no one was injured."

"At this time, we have not received any requests to assist in the earthquake recovery efforts," she said.

The quake struck about 8:50 a.m. local time (11:50 p.m. Friday EDT).

Many citizens were still in their beds at the time of the quake. Witness Malik Abdul Manan said he and his family "woke up and ran out. The shocks went on for a long time." (Survivors describe shock awakening)

"This was the strongest earthquake in the area during the last hundred years," Qamar Uz Zaman, director-general of the Pakistani Meteorological Department, told CNN.

A series of aftershocks, including one of 6.3 magnitude and four more at 5.4 or above, rattled the region, creating new panic among residents. In Indian-controlled Kashmir, many people refused to return indoors out of fear of a new quake.

Frantic efforts to rescue survivors were under way in Islamabad, where an apartment building collapsed.

Video footage from Pakistani television showed crowds of people climbing on the rubble of the building and attempting to free those trapped under large concrete slabs. Some of the injured were carried away on stretchers.

Musharraf and Aziz reviewed rescue and relief operations at the site of the collapsed building -- the 10-story residential Margalla Tower.

About 70 to 80 people were trapped in the rubble, the government said.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and senior military and civilian officials, were overseeing the operations and briefed the leaders.

The government said Pakistan Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Civil Administration and Capital Development Authority took part in the operations.

"The reaction has been very fast, people reached the site shortly after the earthquake and responded efficiently and I think they are following a right strategy," Musharraf said, according to a government statement.

City officials are trying to obtain heavy earth and rubble moving machinery from the private sector to help rescue the trapped people.
Landslides follow quake

The quake also triggered landslides, resulting in the closure of some highways, officials said.

The quake was "quite shallow," said David Applegate, senior science advisor for earthquake and geologic hazards for the U.S. Geological Survey. "That means the shaking is going to be very intense."

The fact that Islamabad was near the epicenter "means a fairly large urban population has experienced some strong shaking," Applegate said.

The National Earthquake Information Center put the quake at 7.6 magnitude, which it considers "major." The Pakistani Meteorological Department put the magnitude at 7.5, and Japan's Meteorological Agency put it at 7.8.

In February 2004, a pair of earthquakes registering 5.5 and 5.4 magnitude, respectively, killed at least 21 people and injured dozens more and destroyed hundreds of homes built of mud, stone and timber in a rugged, mountainous area about 90 miles northwest of Islamabad.

In January 2001, some 30,000 people died in a magnitude 7.7 quake in western India.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Satinder Bindra, CNN Producers Syed Mohsin Naqvi and John Raedler and Journalists Mukhtar Ahmed in Srinagar and Tom Coghlan in Kabul contributed to this report.


http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-08T083646Z_01_MOL817643_RTRUKOC_0_US-QUAKE-SUBCONTINENT.xml
Earthquake shakes subcontinent; scores feared dead

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A major earthquake shook cities and villages across the south Asian subcontinent on Saturday, including the Pakistan capital Islamabad where scores of people were feared killed or trapped when two buildings collapsed.

Officials said heavy casualties were expected in the north of Pakistan, but details were difficult to obtain because telephone lines were down and mobile networks overwhelmed.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.6, struck at 0350 GMT and was centered about 95 km (60 miles) northeast of Islamabad.

Quake kills 200 in Indian Kashmir; hundreds injured

By Kamil Zaheer 34 minutes ago


BARAMULLA, India (Reuters) - A major earthquake damaged hundreds of houses in Indian
Kashmir and triggered landslides that buried huts and blocked highways, killing at least 213 people, authorities said on Saturday.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.6, struck at 0350 GMT and was centred about 95 km northeast of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, near the mountainous, heavily militarised frontier separating Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.

The border areas of Uri, Kupwara and Baramulla in Indian Kashmir were the worst hit with many mud and stone houses buried under landslides and others developing cracks in their walls, authorities and witnesses said.

The landslides also blocked a key 300-km highway that connects Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir, to the rest of India to the south.

The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road linking Indian and Pakistani Kashmir -- reopened earlier this year to traffic for the first time in nearly 60 years -- was also blocked.

Uri, the last big town on the highway connecting the two Kashmirs, and its nearby areas accounted for about 130 of the deaths, authorities said.

In Baramulla, a large town on the same highway, several injured people, their heads bandaged, sat dazed in front of their houses and by the side of streets amid a steady drizzle. Many houses had collapsed and narrow alleys were blocked by rubble.

Residents complained that they were yet to get any help from the government, hours after the quake struck.

"India helped other countries during the tsunami. It helped America after Katrina but there is no help for us from Delhi," said Abdul Rehman Bhat, a Baramulla shopkeeper. "Only Allah will help us, who else is there?"

INDIA OFFERS PAKISTAN HELP

The dead included 40 soldiers in Uri region, some of them in bunkers close to the military ceasefire line between India and Pakistan.

Thousands were feared killed across the border in Pakistan. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed New Delhi's sympathies to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and offered to help in the relief effort, an Indian statement said.

The
U.S. Geological Survey described the quake as "major", saying it took place at a depth of 10 km. It was centred 125 km northwest of Srinagar.

"It was so intense that it shook the earth beneath my feet," said Abdul Majid Bhat, a retired government employee in Srinagar.

"Everything around me was swinging. Mighty chinar trees were swaying forwards and backwards. It was really horrible and I thought perhaps it was the last day of my life," he said.

The Indian army and air force was deployed to rescue people, take them to hospitals, set up temporary shelters and provide food and water, defence authorities said.

Hundreds of faithful in Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, offered special prayers in mosques after the earthquake, seeking forgiveness, witnesses said.

The tremors were also felt elsewhere across much of northern India, triggering panic. In New Delhi, hundreds of construction workers ran into the streets in Gurgaon, a swanky business and call centre hub on the outskirts of the capital.

My heart goes out to those poor people. :(

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/000200510082001.htm
About 250 killed in J&K quake, 650 injured

Srinagar, Oct 8.(PTI): About 250 people, including 25 security personnel, were killed and 650 others injured in a powerful earthquake that rocked Jammu and Kashmir this morning leaving a trail of devastation.

Hundreds of houses and other buildings collapsed or were damaged in the tremor, which was the strongest in over 120 years, and was followed by over a dozen aftershocks that triggered panic in the area.

Official sources said the death toll was continuously mounting as reports have started pouring in from far off places which got cut off from the mainland due to the earthquake.

Baramulla district of North Kashmir was the worst hit where 142 people died especially in the border town of Uri where a number of villages near the Line of Control almost got flattened.

Eighty per cent of the houses in the township, 101 kms from here, were damaged in the tremor which had a magnitude of 7.4 on the Richter scale and was epicentred in Muzaffarabad in PoK, the sources said.

Tangdhar and Keran sectors of frontier district of Kupwara were also badly hit in the quake where 51 people were killed, the sources said.

Eight persons were killed in Poonch district of Jammu region, seven in Srinagar and four others in Udhampur district, the sources said.

They said in all 650 persons were injured in the earthquake and have been evacuated to hospital.

Condition of many of the injured persons was stated to be critical, the sources said.

Twenty-five security personnel, including 20 army jawans were killed, and scores of others injured as a number of bunkers and buildings along the LoC in Baramulla, Kupwara and Poonch districts collapsed under the impact of the earthquake.

The army has lost 20 soldiers due to bunkers caving in and damage to buildings all along the LoC in Rampur, Uri, Baramulla and Tangdhar sectors, a defence spokesman told PTI.

Deputy Inspector General of BSF K Srinivasan said four jawans of the force were killed, one was missing and seven others injured in Uri and Gulmarg sectors of Baramulla due to bunker collapses.

While four BSF personnel were killed and another went missing in Uri sector, seven jawans were injured in Gulmarg sector, Srinivasan said.

One army jawan was killed in Poonch district, official sources said.

Nearly 1000 residential houses were also damaged in the earthquake which also disrupted essential services, cutting a number of villages from the mainland. Cracks also appeared in the dam feeding to Uri power project, the sources said.

The sources said among the seven persons killed in Srinagar one of them was identified as four-year-old Mousa who was hit by a brick of his house at Safakadal locality of the city.

Four labourers were buried alive when a stone rolled down a quarry where they were working at Panthachowk on the outskirts of the city, the sources added.

According to reports, damage was also caused to Uri dam and all concerned experts have been rushed to the place.

They said one of the TV transmission towers at Suleiman complex in Srinagar has also been damaged.

Tremors were felt as far away as Delhi.

Knowing the state of emergency response systems in India and Pakistan and the tough terrain as I do, I fear that the toll will run to more than 5000 :( I fear the toll from landlides will also be high.

Many villages have been cutoff from road links and we have no idea what is the extant of the damage.

The saving grace is that the Army and Air force is already deployed and are working at full swing.

My heart goes out to those poor people. :(

Seconded. That's awful.

Poor Kahmiris.





Another natural disaster on top of a political one.
(I'm referring to the tsunami in Aceh, btw,
with Indonesia's brutal military killing mostly civilians)

All I know about Kashmir, I learned from
Tariq Ali
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n08/ali_01_.html

Oh, I suppose N.O. should not be left out either.

7.6... oh $H!T... damn... :(

Paki govt estimates toll on their side as upto 30,000.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1513942,0008.htm
An estimated 30,000 people were killed in Pakistan occupied Kashmir by a massive earthquake, the region's Minister for Works and Communication Tariq Farooq said on Sunday.

Our rough estimates say more than 30,000 people have died in the earthquake, he said. Pakistan's military said earlier that at least 18,000 died in the 7.6 magnitude quake that hit on Saturday.

"There are cities, there are towns, which have been completely destroyed. Muzaffarabad is devastated," he added, referring to the capital of Pakistan's sector of disputed Kashmir.

Earlier, Pakistan military spokesman said more than 18,000 people have been killed and 41,000 injured in the massive earthquake

Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan told CNN, adding it was possible that the toll could be much higher.

Pointing out that the scale of the devastation was the biggest in Pakistan's experience, Sultan added that another 41,000 people had been injured in the quake.

His comments came as emergency workers continued to pull out the trapped, treat the injured and feed the homeless survivors of the earthquake.

Sultan also told the local Geo TV that of the over 18,000 dead, 17,000 fatalities were in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) alone where the quake was centred. There were also reports that 250 students of a school were among those killed in the quake.

"It is a national tragedy....This is the worst earthquake in recent times," Sultan said.

The UN was sending emergency coordinators to Pakistan to prepare the world body's response to the earthquake. "We know that every hour counts in an earthquake of this magnitude and the United Nations is ready to assist the country affected in any possible manner," UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said in a statement.

Rescuers worked through last night to free people trapped under debris after a multi-storey building collapsed in Islamabad and houses flattened in the quake-hit villages of the country.

Once remote areas, where quake caused large-scale damage, were accessed, the toll is expected to soar. Many roads were wiped out in the landslides triggered by the quake.

"This disaster is by far the biggest in its magnitude and scale so far that we have witnessed in Pakistan's history," Sultan told CNN, adding, "There are many areas that so far have not been reached. The death toll of 18,000 could be manifold ... As we reach more areas and as we discover more and more bodies under the rubble."

The military's focus was on evacuating injured people, establishing forward bases and opening up communications, Sultan said.

Karam Usmani, a police officer in Islamabad, told BBC "I heard the cries of the people in the debris and with my bare hands I started to dig and I pulled out one dead body. But I managed to rescue another man of 35 and carried him on my shoulders to the ambulance."

Several countries have offered to help with US President George W Bush saying in a statement "the people of the United States offer our deepest sympathies for the loss of life and destruction."

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply saddened by the loss of life."

Britain has also promised to help the quake-hit regions of South Asia.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Asiz, who along with President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday visited the collapsed multi-storey 'Margala Towers' building in Islamabad, had sought assistance from "friends all over the world" for relief operations.

Aziz announced Rs one billion relief package for immediate expenditure for the relief and rescue operations.

"We are mounting a massive relief effort. We are welcoming financial aide from friends. The President's relief funds has been set up and we welcome assistance from friends all over the world," he said.

Aftershocks in J&K, toll rises to 320

Two aftershocks in Kashmir valley in the wee hours on Sunday rushed a shell-shocked people into the open even as the toll from the devastating quake across Jammu and Kashmir reached 320, a top government official said.

As rescue operations continued through the night in full swing, State chief secretary Vijay Bakaya said, "The death toll across Jammu and Kashmir has reached 320 so far. 157 deaths have been registered in Kupwara district while Baramulla has recorded 139 and Srinagar six."

He said 18 deaths were also recorded in Jammu region from areas falling close to the Line of Control.

Nearly 700 people were reported injured in the 7.6 magnitude quake on Saturday but the casualty figures were expected to increase as authorities make their way to remote areas of Uri in Baramulla and Tangdhar in Kupwara districts which bore the brunt of the temblor.

People across Kashmir rushed out of their houses at around 2.45 am when a strong-but-short tremor rocked them. Another temblor was felt at 3.20 am, keeping the residents awake all night.

As rescuers searched through the rubble looking for survivors, authorities pitched hundreds of tents and began providing food to the victims in the flattened regions.

Bakaya said as many as 300 tents have been pitched by the authorities in Uri town alone thus far and more measures were in the offing but the focus is on providing food and shelter to those who were accessible immediately. Foodgrains and kerosene has been stocked at Uri.


On the Indian side, the Indian army is already well into the rescue operations ,codenamed Operation Imdad (help).

Flag meetings are being held with Paki army so that there are no shelling and firing at this time.

The Indian army has also offered to help them wherever possible.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshowbnews/1256986.cms
NEW DELHI: With almost one-third of the 1.13-million strong Army deployed in J&K, along the border as well in the hinterland, the force was among the hardest hit by the massive earthquake.

Troops on both sides of the LoC bore the brunt of nature’s fury, with Pakistani Army also losing soldiers. Indian and Pakistani sector commanders held “flag meetings” to offer aid to each other later in the day.

Army chief General J J Singh told TOI several bunkers and makeshift barracks in border areas in north Kashmir collapsed. "In one particular post (Eagle Complex) in Tangdhar sector, 12 jawans were killed when a hillside collapsed on their bunker...the entire position was swept away,"he said.

In the meetings between the Indian and Pakistani sector commanders, said Gen Singh, "We told them if you need any help along the border, we are ready for it. The casualties on their side are very high."

The forward Indian posts in Uri and Tangdhar are, incidentally, barely 20 to 25 km away — as the crow flies — from the worst-affected Muzaffarabad district in PoK.

But braving such losses, Army and IAF mounted rescue operations — called Operation Imdad — soon after the news began to trickle in, with the state government flashing SOS signals.

The response by the Indian army has been impressive.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=79680
Brushing its tears aside, Army rushes in to help

URI, OCTOBER 8 For the Army, this was a day of grief. Thirty six men, including a major were killed, while 83 soldiers were seriously wounded. But tragedy was hurriedly put aside as soldiers trooped out on a major rescue operation, digging through mounds of rubble to save trapped villagers and set up temporary hospitals.

The first major jolt hit at around 9.20 am and within minutes, a major portion of the Uri market was on fire. ‘‘Uri was shaken, damaging almost every building. Our own buildings had also collapsed,’’ said Col Hemant Joneja of Army’s 15 Corps. ‘‘But there was a short-circuit and a large part of Uri market was on fire. Our men rushed and doused the fire.’’

The local police station had collapsed, killing four policemen. The seniormost police officer of the area, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammad Yousuf, lost his six-year-old son even as his men managed to rescue his injured wife.

The policemen were busy taking out their colleagues trapped beneath the razed building. Then the main hospital too collapsed.

‘‘I took my children and ran towards the Higher Secondary school ground. I saw my wife too who had rushed there,’’ said Mohammad Ashraf Mir, who lost his father, uncle and two cousins. ‘‘There was hue and cry. Thank God, there is the Army around. They came immediately and then the soldiers helped to rescue more people.’’

In fact, for the Army, the quake had struck home. Many of its buildings were damaged and they had to rescue their colleagues from the canteen and barracks.

‘‘Our men immediately rushed to rescue the people, took hundreds of them out of the collapsed homes and even helped remove their belongings,’’ Col Joneja said. ‘‘But once we got a sense of the intensity of the disaster, we increased our efforts.’’

The army has called their rescue mission: Operation Imdad (help). The first thing was to set up a temporary hospital especially as the local hospital had collapsed. ‘‘We rushed a team of doctors and paramedics from Srinagar and set up a temporary medical camp at Uri,’’ Col Joneja said. ‘‘We also sent medical stores with first aid and emergency medicine.’’

But as the news of disaster in dozens of the villages scattered around this hilly terrain started pouring in with the Army’s own casualties swelling, nothing seemed sufficient enough. The Army pressed its choppers into service that flew all along the Line of Control looking for survivors. ‘‘I don’t have the count of sorties we made. The choppers were flying till late in the evening even after dark. I was myself standing there at the helipad in the Corps headquarters and the choppers were landing even till 6.15 pm,’’ Col Joneja said.

The Army also launched a similar rescue and relief operation in Tangdhar along the LoC in Kupwara district where 53 villagers were killed and 200 injured. Doctors and medical staff with emergency supplies were airlifted from the Army’s hospital in Drugmulla Brigade headquarters to Tangdhar.

The situation in Uri, however, remained grim as dozens of villages were inaccessible until tonight. The Army sent out ‘‘foot columns’’ with food packets and drinking water. ‘‘Our boys are expected to reach the villages late tonight and only then we will have some idea of the damage there,’’ said an Army official.

That’s not all. The Army also had to clear the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road after major landslides blocked it in several places.

18,000+ killed
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1735195,00.html

Probably a lot more.

It's a shame to see Islamabad effected, I like that place. When I lived in Islamabad, I experienced a few Earthquakes, one was quite large, but the epicentre was always far away so you just felt the rumbles for a few seconds then that was it.

The problem here is that the epicentre was extremely close to the city. Can't seem to get in touch with people there this morning, but that was a telephone issue. Not sure if the phones being down had anything to do with the earthquake or not.

They might be back now, I haven't tried.

That whole area is right on a collision zone :(


7.6. Fuckin eh.

30,000 dead?!?

Damn. That's an entire small town. f

A coworker is from Kashmir. It's very bad.

He sent me this note:

Earth Quake in Kashmir By now, I am sure all of you have heard about the devastating Earth Quake in Kashmir: Last night, I spoke to my father in Kashmir and the news is not good. Thousands of people have died. There is scene of death and destruction every where. There is not a single structure standing. Those who survived are living in open fields with no shelter and with bare minimum... The entire infrastructure (roads/power, communication) has been destroyed. Very few people have working cell phones left which will go down as batteries run out... Please be generous and donate what ever you can. More importantly, they need our Prayers at this time. Please do remember them in your prayers. Thank you, Please use Islamic Relief to donate any money. They are the only organization present at ground zero: Also try UNICEF: www.unicef.org Islamic Relief 1919 W Magnolia Blvd Burbank, CA 91506 (888) 479-4968 link/ info@irw.org Tax ID# 95-4453134