18,000 dead in Pakistan from quake

limbssg · October 9, 2005

Time is GMT + 8 hours

Posted: 09 October 2005 1019 hrs

Over 18,000 dead in Pakistan from quake: army

ISLAMABAD - Over 18,000 people have been killed in Pakistan in the huge earthquake that shook parts of South Asia, military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told CNN.

He also told the American broadcaster that some 41,000 people had been injured in Pakistan in Saturday's quake which measured at least 7.6 on the Richter Scale. - AFP/ir

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp.../172476/1/.html

limbssg · October 9, 2005

Diary: S Asian quake aid worker

Shaista Aziz, 28, is a UK-based Oxfam aid worker. She has worked for Oxfam for nearly two years and has previously worked on Oxfam's emergency response Aceh following the tsunami.

She is keeping a diary of the South Asian earthquake disaster for the BBC News website. Here she writes of how she reacted to news of the quake:

SATURDAY 1600 GMT: OXFORD, UK

I woke up a bit late this morning. As a Muslim I've been fasting for Ramadan and it's exhausting. I woke to find my phone buzzing annoyingly by my bedside and, more worryingly, my mum crying outside my door.

"There's been an earthquake in Pakistan," my mum told me. My family are from Pakistan and my dad is there at the moment. She hadn't heard from him or any of our relatives. I could understand why she was worried.

I checked my phone to find out if any of my messages were from him. There were lots of messages but none from him - in fact, they were all from my colleagues at Oxfam asking me to come into the office so that I could help in the response to the disaster. I called them back to tell them I'd be in as soon as I had calmed down my mum.

Luckily, after a tense few hours my mum managed to get through to my dad and he was safe. He told us that around him there were dozens of buildings that had collapsed.

I went to work straightaway and learned that my colleagues in the region already had Oxfam's response well under way. We have a head start as we have worked in the region for years and have staff and partners in the worst-affected areas. Our emergency response team was already on its way to the worst-hit areas.

According to our emergency response co-ordinator in Islamabad, in the five worst-affected districts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir we have already begun assessments in three of these and some aid is on the way.

After just two hours in the office I got a call asking me to get a visa and get on the next plane to Islamabad. I packed in a rush, forgetting everything I'm sure, and drove to the airport. I made the plane in the nick of time and tomorrow I'll wake up in Islamabad, hoping the scale of the disaster isn't as bad as we fear.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4323212.stm