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Quake kills more than 18,000 in South Asia
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-09 18:10
The only serious damage reported in Pakistan's capital was the collapse of a
10-story apartment building, where at least 10 people were killed and 126 were
injured. Hospital doctors said the dead included an Egyptian diplomat, and the
Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said two Japanese were killed.
A man named Rehmatullah who lived near the apartment building said dust
enveloped the wreckage.
"I rushed down, and for some time you could not see anything because of the
dust. Then we began to look for people in the rubble," he said. "We pulled out
one man by cutting off his legs."
"It was like hell," added Nauman Ali, who lives in a nearby building. "I was
tossed up in my bed and the ceiling fan struck against the roof."
Aided by two large cranes, hundreds of police and soldiers helped remove
chunks of concrete, one of which was splattered with blood. One rescue worker
said he heard faint cries from people trapped in the rubble.
In Abbotabad, north of Islamabad, dozens of injured quake victims and other
patients lay on the lawn of the city hospital as staff with loudspeakers
appealed to the public for food and other relief supplies.
One of the injured was an 8-year-old boy, Qadeer, whose father, a farmer
named Jehangir, said the only buildings left standing in their village were a
mosque and a school. Qadeer lay unconscious, his right leg heavily bandaged.
Authorities laid out dozens of bodies under sheets in a damaged sports
stadium in Muzaffarabad.
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