Pakistan’s worst-ever earthquake devastated the country on Saturday and killed over 3,000 people, leaving thousands others injured and homeless. Measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale, the earthquake was centred in the Hindu Kush ranges. The first earthquake hit at 8:51am in the morning, and more than 10 aftershocks were felt until late in the evening. Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, the federal interior minister, confirmed that over 1,000 people had died. However, unofficial estimates put the number of dead at over 3,000.Sherpao said that Muzaffarabad, Balakot, Bagh, several cities of NWFP, Lahore, Gurjat, Mandi Bahaudin, Rawalpindi and other parts of the country were hit by the catastrophic jolts of the earthquake. In Islamabad, one of the blocks of the Margalla Towers - a posh building of luxury apartments – collapsed from the earthquake. Around 250 people, including foreign nationals, were buried alive under the debris of the huge structure. With the number of dead rising rapidly with every update, sources say that the final death toll of the catastrophe could exceed 10,000.
Meanwhile, President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz visited the site of the collapsed tower, in sector F-10, and urged the nation to unite in the current national calamity. The president expressed satisfaction at the relief work. The prime minister pledged that the government would provide complete support to the affected families. Sherpao directed the National Crises Management Cell to set up crisis centres in the provincial capitals. A central cell was established in the Interior Ministry.
| Followup: AP sets the toll at 18,000. |
UPDATE 2pm EDT:
An estimated 30,000 people were killed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by a massive earthquake, the region's Minister for Works and Communication Tariq Farooq said on Sunday. "Our rough estimates say more than 30,000 people have died in the earthquake in Kashmir," he said.