Hundreds are thought to be dead after the 7.6-magnitude quake, whose epicentre was 50 miles north-northeast of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
In Islamabad itself, buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute at 4.50am BST (8.50am local time), and part of a 10-storey apartment building collapsed. Dozens of people were feared trapped in the rubble.
Rescuers pulled out at least 20 injured people. The dead included an Egyptian diplomat, hospital doctors said. The Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said two Japanese died.
A man named Rehmatullah who lived nearby said he saw dust from the buckled building from his bathroom window. “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.”
Pakistan’s Geo television quoted chief army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan as saying 1,000 people were feared dead. Army officials who flew over quake-hit areas reported seeing hundreds of flattened homes in villages north of the capital.
The US Geological Survey reported at least five aftershocks in Pakistan, with the strongest measuring magnitude 6.3.
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz directed federal and provincial officials to mobilise resources, ordered the military to extend all-out help to quake-hit areas and appealed to the nation to stay calm, the Information Ministry said in a statement. It described the quake as “one of the strongest to hit the country in recent years.”
A Pakistani army spokesman said massive damage was feared in northern areas, Kashmir and other parts of the country. He said troops and helicopters were sent to earthquake-hit areas to conduct rescue operations. Police in Lahore said at least eight people were injured and four shops were damaged.
Damage was extensive in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan. At least 220 people died in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, a senior state official said.
Most of the deaths occurred in the border towns of Uri, Tangdar and Punch, and in the city of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, said B.B. Vyas, the state’s divisional commissioner.
The dead included 20 soldiers who perished in landslides along the Line of Control that separates the Indian and Pakistani portions of Kashmir, said Col. H. Juneja, an army spokesman.
At least 800 people were injured when houses and buildings collapsed across Jammu-Kashmir, Vyas said, adding that soldiers and local volunteers were still pulling people from the debris of collapsed houses. Around 2,700 homes are destroyed or damaged in Jammu-Kashmir, he said.
Officials said the official death toll could increase as telephone lines are restored and more reports come in.
“These are the current reports of casualties. The figure may rise as details come in about damaged houses and the numbers (of dead) could go up,” said Vijay Bakaya, Jammu-Kashmir state’s chief secretary.
Two of Kashmir’s main highways were closed because of landslides triggered by the quake, and relief material was being flown to some of the worst hit areas, Bakaya said.
At least 400 tents have been flown by helicopter to Uri and Tangdar to provide temporary shelter to people whose homes have been destroyed or declared unsafe. With freezing temperatures in the Himalayan foothills at night, welfare officials were trying to set up the tents before darkness fell.
The worst-hit areas in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir included Muzaffarabad, the regional capital, and the towns of Bagh and Rawalakot. The districts of Batagram, Balakot, Mansehra, Abbottabad and Patan in northwestern Pakistan also suffered serious damage. Authorities brought dozens of bodies to a damaged sports stadium in Muzaffarabad, and laid them on the ground under sheets.
Residents in the Afghan capital, Kabul, also felt the quake, fleeing their homes for fear they would collapse.
“We are calling all our officials in the provinces. But we haven’t received any reports yet of casualties,” said Saed Jawad Qanah, an official in Kabul with the disaster department of the Red Crescent Society.
Residents in Kabul, the capital of neighboring Afghanistan, felt the quake, fleeing their homes for fear they would collapse. US military spokesman Lt Col Jerry O’Hara said the quake was felt at Bagram, the main American base in Afghanistan, but he had no reports of damage at bases around the country.
Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn, said: “Initial indications are this appears to be a major disaster. The DFID emergency team has been in operation since first thing this morning.
“We have offered immediate assistance to the government of Pakistan, and the UK emergency search and rescue teams are ready to go as soon as requested.”
The charity UNICEF, the world’s leading organisation working specifically for children, said it was ready to offer support as requested.
A spokeswoman said: “At this early stage we are assessing the situation in the affected areas and establishing exactly what needs to
be done.
“UNICEF has a strong presence in all countries.
“We also have emergency supplies in place that can be immediately distributed. “In 2003 in Pakistan UNICEF worked closely with the authorities after devastating floods hit Sindh province and affected more than 800,000 people.
“Demographics suggest that up to 17 per cent of people in an area in Pakistan will be children under 5, and a quarter of the population is below the official poverty line.”
Donations to UNICEF’s UK emergency fund can be made by calling 0800 037 9797 or 08457 312 312 or logging on to www.unicef.org.uk
