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BEIJING, Oct. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- About 18,000 people
were killed and 40,000 people injured in a strong earthquake on Saturday,
Pakistani military spokesman said here on Sunday.
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Rescuers search for people
buried in a 10-storey building collapsed in the earthquake in Islamabad,
Pakistan Oct. 8. (Xinhua)
Click for more photos
| Major General
Shaukat Sultan told private Geo television that across the country, 17,000
people were killed in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and 1,000 more in Punjab and
North West Frontier province.
Over 210 army jawans lost their lives due to the
earthquake and more than 400 injured, Sultan said, adding the death toll could
rise further.
He said many affected areas were still not
accessible.
The quake rocked major Pakistani cities including
Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi and other parts of the country,
and in the outskirts of Azad Kashmir, several villages have been totally wiped
out.
In northern Pakistan, several villages were buried in
landslides triggered by the quake, Pakistan's military said.
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| Vehicles damaged are seen beside a
10-storey building collapsed in the earthquake in Islamabad Oct. 8.
(Xinhua) |
The tremors were also felt in India's Delhi, western
Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Ahmedabad.
In Afghanistan, an 11-year-old girl was killed in the
quake as the roof caved in on her in Surkhroad district of eastern Nangarhar
Province, a senior official in the provincial police department told Xinhua.
Shortly after the earthquake, the strongest one in
South Asia in decades, relief teams were on the move.
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| Pakistani rescue-workers pull an injured
man out of a collapsed
building. | A United
Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team will assist with the ongoing
assessment and coordination work in response to a request made by Pakistan, a UN
spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs has already released 100,000 US dollars in emergency cash
grant for the immediate delivery of relief aid.
The International Red Cross said it was busy
preparing an emergency response to offer help to Pakistan and India.
US President George W. Bush said US aid was on the
way. Britain was sending rescue experts and aid workers to the affected regions.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his
country had sent two military planes carrying aid materials and rescue workers.
The European Union said Saturday that humanitarian
agencies had difficulties reaching the affected region, but they were urged to
go, adding that it would offer financial assistance for the relief work.
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