Pakistan says more than 1,000 may have died in a powerful quake that also hit north India and Afghanistan and wiped out whole villages in Kashmir.

The quake in Kashmir had a magnitude of at least 7.6. The epicentre was 80km (50 miles) north-east of Islamabad.

Pakistan's interior ministry said several villages had been wiped out. Sixty people are so far confirmed dead in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Rescuers are trying to reach dozens of residents feared trapped in collapsed buildings in Islamabad.

Residents in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and India's capital, Delhi, are also reported to have felt the tremor.

Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman, said: "Casualties will be high... they could be well over 1,000, "It is a national tragedy," he said.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told local television: "We have reports that several entire villages have been wiped out."

A series of four aftershocks of magnitudes between 5.4 and 5.9 were felt across the subcontinent and shook buildings in the Afghanistan and Indian capitals, Kabul and New Delhi.

The earthquake "wiped out" several villages in Pakistan causing scores of casualties, Officials said heavy damage is expected in the north of Pakistan, but details were difficult to obtain because telephone lines were down and mobile networks overwhelmed.

"We have reports that several entire villages have been wiped out," Pakistan interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said. He did not estimate the population of the villages nor say where they were located.

Scores of people are feared killed or trapped in two 12-storey apartment blocks reduced to rubble in Islamabad. Officials said the two blocks had contained 75 apartments.

"I just cannot say how many people are still under there and we are trying to evacuate them. Over 75 apartments were affected, so the number of people is in the hundreds," said Mohammad Ali, a government official in Islamabad.

Damn, isnt there enough trouble in that region already. But good old mother nature thought she let them know that she is still around in force. Such destruction, good luck to the rescue crews....

Just an update on the quake.....

More than 2,000 people are feared dead on the Pakistan side. Indian officials reported nearly 300 deaths....400 children were reported to have died when their school collapsed in north-west Pakistan. Army spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan told the BBC: "I would say it is massive damage that has been caused. I would say that the casualties may not be hundreds - but much more."


I could only do one thing which was to pick people out of the rubble and with my bare hands I started to dig
Karam Umrani
Islamabad police officer

Eyewitness: 'Cries haunt me'
Send us your comments

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told local television: "We have reports that several entire villages have been wiped out."

The head of police in the North West Frontier Province told AFP news agency "between 550 and 600" people had died and the figure was likely to rise.

In Pakistani-controlled Kashmir 250 bodies have been recovered of the more than 2,000 feared dead, an official told the BBC from the provincial capital, Muzaffarabad.

"All official buildings have collapsed," he said.

Landslides have blocked all access roads to Muzaffarabad, where there is no electricity and telephones.

At least 200 Pakistani soldiers were among those killed in the area.

Islamabad collapse

Part of the upmarket Margala Towers residential complex collapsed in Islamabad.

Karam Usmani, a 28-year-old sub-inspector with Islamabad police told the BBC: "I heard the cries of the people in the debris and with my bare hands I started to dig and I pulled out one dead body.

"But I managed to rescue another man of 35 and carried him on my shoulders to the ambulance."

In Indian-administered Kashmir, 15 soldiers were among those killed.

The town of Uri close to the Line of Control that separates divided Kashmir was worst hit, with 104 dead.

Source BBC News

U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center

This ones really bad, wow. 7+ on the Richter scale! Right in the heart of the most disputed terratory on the planet, as if Kashmir didn't have enough suffering already!

Do any of you see similarities where the hurricane katrina
and earthquake of the 7.6 hit the Pakistan India Afghanistan area
offer giant similarities?
1] Very Poor People
2] 3 states in USA/ 3 countries [parallel]
3] exactly 3o days from Katrina? Rita?
4] strapped resources to dig out people/ no help except locals,etc
5] government unprepared
6] gang activity/ violence/wars

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9626146/

One clip above to let you see the earthquake & recovery efforts.


Strange or coincidence?


ISIS conscience,conscious,consciousness

Latest update.......A minister in Pakistan-administered Kashmir told the AFP news agency 30,000 people had died in that region alone.

"People have been devoured by the earth," said Tariq Farooq, works and communications minister. Pakistan's military says more than 18,000 have been killed by Saturday's huge earthquake, and it is feared the death toll could climb much further.

Another 40,000 people are believed to be injured, said military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4323008.stm

This is so terrible. It's just one thing after the other over there. My thoughts are with them. So sad.

And yes those of you have been following my posts will know that my ex and I packed off our 14 and 12 year olds to Northern India just 5 days ago. Yes they now find themselves in an earthquake zone but both are safe and well. To say I'm anxious however would be an understatement.....whilst they are being hit by aftershocks in their area the risk of another quake remains high but the reports I am getting are that they are both just fine and the thought of coming home hasn't entered their minds. Kids, you wonder my hair is grey?

Ben

the numbers are just too big to even imagine....they are confirming to 30 000 dead, and still many montain villages stay as unknown, most probably destroyed.

Mother nature is sure as hell makeing a point ...one disaster follows another.
Hopefully there are still some resources left at the Red Cross from Katarina, Rita and Tsunami.

CNN and US's other TV news networks are covering this very well.

USA is moving in some aid, sending helicopters, Sec'y Rice says we'll do all we can and Pres. Bush spoke to the nation yesterday, emphasizing the seriousness of the quake, encouraging people to donate, asking for "cash money", prayers.

So, some is happening--good, need more.

the new estimate is that the number will go hundred of thousands ...its in my country...and iam doing best i can....but i have seen the reponse of pakistanis...u cant imagine how much aid has been sent uptil now....in karachi 1 c130 was expected...now they so much aid that 7 c130 would take tht stuff...
balakot one of the best tourist aot totally wiped out...azad kashmir my origin 70 percent swept away...the main concern is that who will built houses for them...bcoz in pakistan there are no insurances to cover and govt aid is not tht much...thts a major concern..

Wow, Celestial, Pakistan is your country? Please accept my sympathies as the people in your country go through this difficult time.

yeh its my origin....but iam actually a norwegian by birth...

it is said in the Headlines of one of d most leading newspaper that `Pak Terrorist camps are destroyed in the earthquake'.. atleast something good happened coz of earthquake....
but my symapthy to all innocent pakistanis n kashmiris who suffered in this dissaster.

Pak Terrorist camps are destroyed in the earthquake'
excuse me gotha do umean to say that pakistanis are terrorists...they were alqaeda camps and we have no link with them...next time select your words in a proper manner

Actually they are saying that more than 40000 are dead in these area...however the internal news is that more than 2 hundred thousand are dead...govt doesn't want people to freak out...i.e why