Pakistan: Whole generation lost in quake
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-10-11 05:54

MUZAFFARABAD: A whole generation has been wiped out in the areas of Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir most devastated by the weekend's huge quake, the country's military spokesman said yesterday, adding that schoolchildren were the worst affected.

Pakistani rescue workers remove a dead body from rubble of 10-story apartment building that collapsed in the 7.6 magnitude earthquake a day earlier, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2005 in Islamabad, Pakistan.  [AP]

"It is a whole generation that has been lost in the worst affected areas. The maximum number affected was schoolchildren," said Major General Shaukat Sultan.

"Rescuers are pulling out dead children in Muzaffarabad but there is no one to claim the bodies which shows their parents are dead," Sultan said, referring to the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

"Rawalakot has been destroyed. Muzaffarabad is 70 per cent destroyed. There is not a single house in Muzaffarabad which has not suffered damage. There is not a single family there that has not suffered," he added.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and a senior government official speaking on condition of anonymity said yesterday that between 30,000 and 40,000 people had died.