ISLAMABAD, Nov. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 17,000 Pakistani children died when their schools collapsed in the giant Oct. 8 earthquake and the trauma for survivors is worse than after the Asian tsunami, according to local press reports on Tuesday.

    "We are estimating that at least 17,000 pupils were killed in schools, that's the one number that we have some estimate on," UN Children's Fund executive director Ann Veneman told reporters in Islamabad on Monday.

    According to UNICEF estimates, some 1.6 million to 2.2 million children have been affected by the earthquake, which has killed more than 55,000 people and made 3.3 million homeless.

    Veneman said that even those children who have survived were traumatized. "The trauma that these children have experienced I think has been particularly even worse than other tragedies like the tsunami, because so many of these kids were in schools," she said. Enditem