Toll rising rapidly in Pakistan quake

BALAKOT, Pakistan -- At least 18,000 people may be dead and thousands are feared trapped in debris after a powerful earthquake struck northern Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on Saturday. The quake entombed hundreds of children in their schools, collapsed a high-rise apartment building in the Pakistani capital and devastated an untold number of villages.

The 7.6-magnitude quake struck just after 8:50 a.m. Saturday in the disputed territory of Kashmir. The epicenter was in a mountainous region about 60 miles northeast of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesman, told Pakistan's Geo TV network early Sunday that more than 18,000 had been killed, Associated Press reported.

Balakot was reduced to rubble. Survivors here said that at least 5,000 people were killed in the city, but that number could not be confirmed.

Hundreds more were missing in the debris in Balakot, including hundreds of children trapped in the wreckage of 10 schools, the survivors said. With rescuers thwarted by landslides and heavy rainfall, parents were desperately trying to claw through the rubble in the hope they were still alive.

In the town of Garhi Habibullah, residents said that about 300 bodies had been recovered from the ruins of a girls school there. Five hundred other students were injured.

"Many villages have wiped out in the earthquake-hit areas of the province," a witness, Abdul Makjeed, said by phone from Mansehra, near Garhi Habibullah, and the worst-affected area.

In Islamabad, rescuers worked into the night trying to save scores of people believed trapped in the rubble of the apartment complex in an upscale district of the capital that counted foreign nationals among its residents. At least 20 people were killed and 85 others injured when one building in the Margallah Towers complex collapsed and another was severely damaged.

Soon after the quake struck, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the country's armed forces had helicopters and C-130 transport planes ready to ship emergency relief supplies into the affected areas, which are at the center of more than one geopolitical drama.

Pakistani military spokesman said more than 200 military personnel in northern areas were reported killed in the quake. Pakistan's military has numerous bases in the region, especially in Kashmir. Both countries claim sovereignty over the Himalayan territory, and the dispute has caused two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since Britain granted the subcontinent independence in 1947.

About 300 people died in Indian-controlled areas of Kashmir, and scores of homes were damaged or destroyed in the region, said Mansoor Hussain, spokesman for India's chief minister in the territory.

More than 500 people were injured and 1,100 houses damaged or destroyed in Indian Kashmir, Hussain said by telephone from Srinagar, summer capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state. Heavy rain complicated relief efforts in the Kashmir Valley.

But perhaps hardest hit was Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, a territory bordering Afghanistan that Afghan intelligence officials claim Taliban militants have used as a base for cross- border attacks. Residents in the Mansehra area said the bases, which had been closed after a government crackdown, reopened this spring. Pakistan's government denies the allegations.

The rugged, semiautonomous border region, which has fiercely resisted outside rule for centuries, is considered a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden. But senior Afghan and Pakistani officials said earlier this year they did not think the al-Qaida leader was in their territories.

In Islamabad, U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker said a joint U.S.- Pakistani airborne surveillance unit has been authorized to provide helicopters for the relief effort. The United States helped set up the Ministry of Interior Air Wing after the Sept. 11 attacks to conduct border surveillance against terrorists and drug traffickers.

"The U.S. military has offered assistance to their Pakistani counterparts to provide appropriate supplies and assistance for relief efforts," the embassy said in a statement on its Web site. Crocker also said he will release $100,000 at his disposal for disaster relief.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries among Americans in the region. A State Department spokesman in Washington said all U.S. Embassy personnel in Islamabad were accounted for. The earthquake was felt in Afghanistan, where about 18,000 U.S. forces are deployed, but the military said the temblor was not strong enough to cause major damage.

At the White House, spokesman Ken Lisaius said President Bush was briefed on the earthquake and "the terrible loss of life it has caused." "The thoughts and prayers of the president and first lady are with the families, friends and loved ones of the victims," Lisaius added.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement that she spoke with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and India on Saturday morning and offered sympathy and assistance.

"At this difficult time," she said, "the United States stands with its friends in Pakistan and India, just as they stood with us and offered assistance after Hurricane Katrina."

During a visit to the ruined apartment complex in Islamabad, Musharraf said: "In the overall context, it is a test for all of us, the entire nation, and we are sure we will meet this test."

Dressed in his army general's uniform, Musharraf stumbled over large chunks of concrete as he surveyed the collapsed buildings.

Pakistan's military said hundreds of troops were dispatched to quake-hit areas from Peshawar, the provincial capital of North-West Frontier province, where troops were also on standby in case of any unrest.

Two helicopters loaded with doctors, engineers and medicines have left Peshawar for Mansehra to coordinate relief activities in the affected areas, a military statement said. But poor visibility and bad weather were hampering rescue operations in some areas of northwest Pakistan, officials said.

Saturday's quake was the worst to hit Pakistan in at least 20 years. A 7.7 magnitude quake struck the Indian state of Gujarat in 2001, killing between 20,000 and 30,000 people and injuring about 166,000. The earthquake, whose epicenter was in the city of Bhuj, destroyed 783,000 buildings, most of them village homes.

Saturday's quake was centered slightly more than six miles underground. About 500 miles away, in the Indian capital, New Delhi, the earthquake was strong enough to make buildings sway for at least a minute. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed shock at the quake's destruction and promised in a statement to pay just more than $2,000 compensation to the next of kin of anyone who died in the earthquake.

Special correspondent Zaidi reported from Balakot, Times staff writer Watson from New Delhi and special correspondent Ali from Peshawar. Times staff writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this report.

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