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| People stand near a collapsed building in
Islamabad. Dozens of people have died in Pakistan after a major quake,
with reports of whole villages being wiped out in northern areas and many
trapped in a collapsed apartment block in the capital
Islamabad. | ISLAMABAD, Oct. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- A
magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on Saturday
morning, killing at least 400 people and injuring thousands more.
Officials say casualties are mostly in rural areas,
with 250 deaths in Pakistan, 157 in India and one in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani military said the death toll could
reach thousands as communication disruptions and road damage prevented atimely
report on casualties.
Rescue efforts are under way in Pakistan as President
PervezMusharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz called on the army to make every
effort to carry out relief and rescue work.
The epicenter of the earthquake was about 100 km
northeast of Pakistan's capital Islamabad and major Pakistani cities like
Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi and other parts ofthe country
were jolted.
The quake shook buildings in Islamabad for about one
minute at around8:55 a.m.
Eight people died in the collapse of an 19-story
apartment building in the capital while 250 others were killed in
Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and the northern region.
Many houses collapsed in the northern Pakistani
districts ofKohistan and Batgram and an unknown number of injured people
wererushed to hospital, reports said.
Large-scale collapse of mud houses was reported in
Rawla Kotarea of Azad Kashmir, while a village was entirely wiped out in Baghin
the major earthquake.
Several school, college and residential buildings
also caved in in various towns of the territory.
The Gilgit-Chitral highway was closed after
landslides triggered by the tremors. Several houses were razed in Kohistan and
Buttgram districts. People injured in quake incidents were being transferred to
hospitals for medical aid.
Meanwhile, in India's worst-hit area, Uri near the
line of control, nearly 400 houses collapsed when the earthquake struck the
area. 157 people were killed in Indian-controled Kashmir.
The road between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad was
blocked by landslide and houses were reported damaged in Poonch District.
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| Pakistani rescue-workers pull an injured
man out of a collapsed building. Dozens of people have died in Pakistan
after a major quake, with reports of whole villages being wiped out in
northern areas and many trapped in a collapsed apartment block in the
capital Islamabad. | The first tremor was felt at
9:25 a.m. on Saturday in India-controlled Kashmir, north India's Uttaranchal,
Punjab, Rajasthan, west India's Gujarat and the capital city New Delhi.
Strong quakes have driven people out of their homes
in Srinagarin India-controlled Kashmir, according to NDTV reports.
High-rise buildings were left particularly shaken by
the tremor lasting for about minutes in Delhi.
In Afghanistan, a child was killed as the earthquake
rattled parts of the country Saturday morning, authorities confirmed.
"An 11-year-old girl has lost her life as the roof
caved in onher in Surkhroad district of eastern Nangarhar Province in the
tremor," a senior official of the provincial police department, Ghafoor Khan,
told Xinhua.
He added that a number of mud houses collapsed in the
neighboring Kama district but left no casualties.
The tremble, which strongly shook the eastern parts
of Afghanistan, wasalso felt in the northern and northeastern Balkh, Kunduz and
Baghlan, Badakhshan and Takhar provinces but caused no casualties.
Authorities in the northern and northeastern
provinces have confirmed zero casualties except minor damage to mud houses in
the areas. Enditem | 
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