38,000 dead in Pakistan from quake
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-15 14:56

Pakistani and UN officials have said the death toll is sure to rise significantly as the rubble is cleared. More than 25,000 people have been confirmed dead in Pakistan and 1,300 in India, with 2.5 million homeless in Pakistan alone.

"We have moved from search and rescue to search and recovery," said Major Farooq Nasir, the spokesman for the army's emergency relief operations in Muzaffarabad.

As bulldozers and front-end loaders began crushing and shovelling the jagged concrete remains of buildings on Friday, the smell of dead bodies underneath overpowered the streets.

International aid has been arriving, but a shortage of helicopters and the difficulty of the terrain has meant thousands of people are still fending for themselves as the first snows appear on the Himalayan foothills.

Stunned, injured and weak, villagers from the remotest areas have begun to trudge into population centres looking for help, only to find chaos and scenes of even greater destruction.

"There were 100 houses and they were all demolished. Not one is left," said Gulzman, an 80-year-old who walked 15 kilometers (nine miles) to Muzaffarabad from Petehka, a town to the south.

"The schools crumbled down on 3,000 schoolchildren and 1,000 high schoolers. None of them could escape."

No one knows how many children were buried alive at their desks when their government-funded schools collapsed around them. Some officials have said thousands of schools lie in ruins.

Pakistan says it needs more helicopters, blankets, tents, medicine and food in the short-term, while the United Nations has warned that the long-term reconstruction effort will cost billions of dollars and take up to 10 years.

But Egeland, the face of the international response to the Asian tsunami catastrophe, has rejected criticism that the relief effort has been confused and tardy.

"It is not slow. The first three or four days there weren't even (open) roads here," he said. "The devastation is beyond belief."

He called for more aid from the international community, saying only 50 million dollars have been pledged of the 272 million dollars the United Nations asked for Tuesday to provide immediate assistance.

"I also urge the world, in addition to more helicopters, to think of how much it takes to get a roof for more than one million people in the space of days and weeks," he said.

He said he was "fairly optimistic" that a "much bigger relief effort" would be seen over the next week.

"But we must not forget the people who will be spending their seventh night tonight -- they should not need to spend an eighth or ninth night in cold and colder climate," he said.