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Thousands dead after huge earthquake hits South Asia
By SALMAN MASOOD and SOMINI SENGUPTA
New York Times
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - A powerful earthquake centered in the Hindu Kush mountains of Pakistan on Saturday morning sent tremors across South Asia, killing more than 18,000 people, including at least 1,600 in remote northern Pakistan, and shaking houses and high-rises throughout the region.
Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesman who announced the toll today, said at least 45,000 people had been injured, a vast majority on the Pakistani side of Kashmir. He said that "so far, there are many areas which have not been reached" by the army but that military units were expected to reach all of them by the end of the day.
Of the 18,000 dead, 17,000 were in Pakistani Kashmir, Sultan told Pakistan's Geo TV network early today.
"It is a national tragedy," Sultan said earlier. "This is the worst earthquake in recent times."
The quake was centered in the far-flung villages of the North-West Frontier Province.
More than 1,600 were thought to have been killed in that province alone, the provincial police control room reported Saturday night. That toll includes an estimated 650 children who were killed in the collapse of three schools.
Estimates of the quake's magnitude varied from 6.8 to 7.8, with the U.S. Geological Survey putting the number at 7.6. Its epicenter was roughly 60 miles north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where 20 "significant aftershocks" measuring between 5 and 6.2 in magnitude were felt throughout Saturday, Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, director general of Pakistan's Meteorological Department in Islamabad, said by telephone Saturday evening. Officials warned that serious aftershocks could continue for two days.
The earthquake, which sent tremors as far east as New Delhi, the Indian capital, and west to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, was the biggest to strike the country in a century, Chaudhry said.
The top police official of the North-West Frontier Province, Riffat Pasha, said Saturday evening that the death toll there continued to rise and that relief efforts had been stymied by blocked roads and broken communication channels. "The situation is very, very bad," he said. "There are bodies lying everywhere. Those who have survived are lying in the open without food, shelter or medicine. The situation has been made worse by the rain and hailstorm that followed the earthquake. There is no way we can reach out to them."
Private television stations showed images of leveled houses in the Pakistani side of Kashmir. Telephone lines remained down, and roads were blocked because of landslides. Torrential rain Saturday evening was likely to impede relief efforts.
In the Indian-held section of the disputed Kashmir region, the death toll climbed to more than 240 by Saturday evening, including more than 30 Indian soldiers standing sentry at the disputed frontier. An untold number of houses were flattened; telephone lines and electricity were disrupted; and several roads were blocked by landslides, cutting the Kashmir Valley off from the rest of the country. The quake also destroyed a number of religious shrines, mosques and temples.
The death toll in Pakistan included 200 soldiers in the Pakistani-controlled section of Kashmir, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao said in a CNN interview.
In eastern Afghanistan, four children were crushed to death and a woman was injured as the walls of their homes collapsed.
Islamabad was in panic, and people spilled onto the streets. Traffic jammed the roads, and residents huddled outside houses, shopping plazas and government buildings.
The cell-phone network collapsed for at least 90 minutes.
Margalla Towers, an upscale five-tower apartment complex, took the city's biggest hit from the quake. One tower collapsed, and part of another fell.
Army and civil authorities reached the site within 30 minutes. Rescue workers estimated at least 150 people, mostly women and children, were stranded under the rubble.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf visited the apartment complex in Islamabad. Musharraf expressed satisfaction with the rescue operation.
"It is a test for all of us," he said in an interview on state television. "We are sure we will pass this test."
In Washington, President Bush expressed his sympathies for the victims of the earthquake.
"Our initial deployments of assistance are under way, and we stand ready to provide additional assistance as needed," he said in a statement.
The U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan C. Crocker, said the United States would send $100,000 in emergency relief for now.
India's government offered condolences and assistance to Pakistan, a longtime rival with which it has been pursuing peace efforts after fighting three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.
"While parts of India have also suffered from this unexpected natural disaster, we are prepared to extend any assistance with rescue and relief which you may deem appropriate," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a message to Musharraf.
The quake occurred along one of the planet's great collision zones. The Indian subcontinent, including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, rides on a tectonic plate that was attached to Antarctica until 150 million years ago.
It broke away and moved north. The Indian subcontinent continues to move north at almost two inches a year.
Because the quake Saturday was shallow, six to 10 miles underground, the shaking on the surface probably was more intense than other quakes of its magnitude, said Waverly J. Person, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Surveys National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. "These are the most damaging earthquakes," he said.
Because it occurred inland, there was no danger of it setting off a tsunami, as happened after the huge Indian Ocean quake in December. The deadliest recent quake in the region was in January 2001. It was centered in Gujarat in western India and killed about 20,000 people.
As for the earthquake Saturday, no foreshocks signaled that a large quake was imminent; several large aftershocks, up to magnitude 6.3, came afterward.
A state of emergency was declared at hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
In Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province, two buildings collapsed in Shah Alami neighborhood. No casualties were reported.
In Mansehra in the North West Frontier Province, officials said 70 percent of the houses had collapsed.
Police Chief Ataullah Khan Wazir said authorities pulled the bodies of 250 students from the wreckage of one girls' school in the village of Ghari Habibibullah. Dozens of children were feared killed in other schools.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
New York Times
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - A powerful earthquake centered in the Hindu Kush mountains of Pakistan on Saturday morning sent tremors across South Asia, killing more than 18,000 people, including at least 1,600 in remote northern Pakistan, and shaking houses and high-rises throughout the region.
Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesman who announced the toll today, said at least 45,000 people had been injured, a vast majority on the Pakistani side of Kashmir. He said that "so far, there are many areas which have not been reached" by the army but that military units were expected to reach all of them by the end of the day.
Of the 18,000 dead, 17,000 were in Pakistani Kashmir, Sultan told Pakistan's Geo TV network early today.
"It is a national tragedy," Sultan said earlier. "This is the worst earthquake in recent times."
The quake was centered in the far-flung villages of the North-West Frontier Province.
More than 1,600 were thought to have been killed in that province alone, the provincial police control room reported Saturday night. That toll includes an estimated 650 children who were killed in the collapse of three schools.
Estimates of the quake's magnitude varied from 6.8 to 7.8, with the U.S. Geological Survey putting the number at 7.6. Its epicenter was roughly 60 miles north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where 20 "significant aftershocks" measuring between 5 and 6.2 in magnitude were felt throughout Saturday, Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, director general of Pakistan's Meteorological Department in Islamabad, said by telephone Saturday evening. Officials warned that serious aftershocks could continue for two days.
The earthquake, which sent tremors as far east as New Delhi, the Indian capital, and west to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, was the biggest to strike the country in a century, Chaudhry said.
The top police official of the North-West Frontier Province, Riffat Pasha, said Saturday evening that the death toll there continued to rise and that relief efforts had been stymied by blocked roads and broken communication channels. "The situation is very, very bad," he said. "There are bodies lying everywhere. Those who have survived are lying in the open without food, shelter or medicine. The situation has been made worse by the rain and hailstorm that followed the earthquake. There is no way we can reach out to them."
Private television stations showed images of leveled houses in the Pakistani side of Kashmir. Telephone lines remained down, and roads were blocked because of landslides. Torrential rain Saturday evening was likely to impede relief efforts.
In the Indian-held section of the disputed Kashmir region, the death toll climbed to more than 240 by Saturday evening, including more than 30 Indian soldiers standing sentry at the disputed frontier. An untold number of houses were flattened; telephone lines and electricity were disrupted; and several roads were blocked by landslides, cutting the Kashmir Valley off from the rest of the country. The quake also destroyed a number of religious shrines, mosques and temples.
The death toll in Pakistan included 200 soldiers in the Pakistani-controlled section of Kashmir, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao said in a CNN interview.
In eastern Afghanistan, four children were crushed to death and a woman was injured as the walls of their homes collapsed.
Islamabad was in panic, and people spilled onto the streets. Traffic jammed the roads, and residents huddled outside houses, shopping plazas and government buildings.
The cell-phone network collapsed for at least 90 minutes.
Margalla Towers, an upscale five-tower apartment complex, took the city's biggest hit from the quake. One tower collapsed, and part of another fell.
Army and civil authorities reached the site within 30 minutes. Rescue workers estimated at least 150 people, mostly women and children, were stranded under the rubble.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf visited the apartment complex in Islamabad. Musharraf expressed satisfaction with the rescue operation.
"It is a test for all of us," he said in an interview on state television. "We are sure we will pass this test."
In Washington, President Bush expressed his sympathies for the victims of the earthquake.
"Our initial deployments of assistance are under way, and we stand ready to provide additional assistance as needed," he said in a statement.
The U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan C. Crocker, said the United States would send $100,000 in emergency relief for now.
India's government offered condolences and assistance to Pakistan, a longtime rival with which it has been pursuing peace efforts after fighting three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.
"While parts of India have also suffered from this unexpected natural disaster, we are prepared to extend any assistance with rescue and relief which you may deem appropriate," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a message to Musharraf.
The quake occurred along one of the planet's great collision zones. The Indian subcontinent, including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, rides on a tectonic plate that was attached to Antarctica until 150 million years ago.
It broke away and moved north. The Indian subcontinent continues to move north at almost two inches a year.
Because the quake Saturday was shallow, six to 10 miles underground, the shaking on the surface probably was more intense than other quakes of its magnitude, said Waverly J. Person, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Surveys National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. "These are the most damaging earthquakes," he said.
Because it occurred inland, there was no danger of it setting off a tsunami, as happened after the huge Indian Ocean quake in December. The deadliest recent quake in the region was in January 2001. It was centered in Gujarat in western India and killed about 20,000 people.
As for the earthquake Saturday, no foreshocks signaled that a large quake was imminent; several large aftershocks, up to magnitude 6.3, came afterward.
A state of emergency was declared at hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
In Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province, two buildings collapsed in Shah Alami neighborhood. No casualties were reported.
In Mansehra in the North West Frontier Province, officials said 70 percent of the houses had collapsed.
Police Chief Ataullah Khan Wazir said authorities pulled the bodies of 250 students from the wreckage of one girls' school in the village of Ghari Habibibullah. Dozens of children were feared killed in other schools.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.