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Quake kills more than 19,000 in South Asia
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-09 19:25
On Sunday, Pakistani rescue teams pulled two survivors from the rubble of the apartment building. The boy and woman, who were listed in stable condition, told doctors others were trapped alive and calling for help beneath the debris.
"These people heard voices and cries during the whole night," said Adil Inayat, a doctor at PIMS hospital in Islamabad.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of the capital, Islamabad, in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir, and was followed by 22 aftershocks within 24 hours, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor. Hospitals moved quake victims onto lawns, fearing tremors could cause more damage, and many people spent the night in the open.
India, a longtime rival of Pakistan, offered help and condolences in a gesture of cooperation. The nuclear rivals have been pursuing peace after fighting three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.
India reported at least 360 people killed and 900 injured when the quake collapsed houses and other buildings in Jammu-Kashmir state. Most of the deaths were in the border towns of Uri, Tangdar and Punch and in the city of Srinagar, said B.B. Vyas, the state's divisional commissioner.
Afghanistan appeared to suffer the least damage. In its east, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, police official Gafar Khan said. Three others also died.
A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, said the quake was felt at Bagram, the main American base in Afghanistan, but there were no reports of damage at bases around the country.
An eight-member U.N. team of top disaster coordination officials was due to arrive in Islamabad on Sunday to plan the global body's response.
President Bush offered condolences, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was ready to help.
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