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Asian Quake Death Toll May Hit 20,000

Posted on: Sunday, 9 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

An estimated 20,000 men, women and children may have been killed by the massive earthquake that struck central and southern Asia, reports said Sunday.

The death toll, as well as the desperation of would-be rescuers, was increasing as each new report came out of Pakistan, the hardest-hit of the three countries affected.

Afghanistan and India also suffered many deaths, but not on the scale of those in Pakistan.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf appealed to the world for help, and told the BBC that Pakistan needed massive cargo helicopter support and aid supplies.

The epicenter of Saturday's magnitude 7.6 quake was in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and also hit India and Afghanistan.

Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, told CNN entire towns have vanished from the scene, and the country had launched its biggest-ever relief operation. Another military spokesman, Brig. Shah Jahan, said relief and rescue workers have yet to access 30 to 40 percent of the affected areas.

The dead include 230 Pakistani soldiers and 250 school girls whose bodies were recovered from a school at Gari Habi Ullaha.

Early Sunday, China's Xinhua news agency said the death toll in Indian-controlled Kashmir reached 350, including 38 soldiers who were buried alive in their bunkers.

The BBC said so far, the very worst devastation was in the Pakistani town of Bagh, 25 miles southeast of Muzaffarabad, where only a handful of buildings remain standing.

Source: United Press International

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