THOUSANDS of survivors of the Kashmir earthquake could yet die from starvation and disease because of a severe shortfall in the amount of emergency aid being provided, the United Nations said yesterday.

As the death toll from the earthquake rose close to 80,000 in Pakistan alone, the head of the UN’s emergency relief effort described Kashmir as “a logistical nightmare” that far outweighed the challenges of the Boxing Day tsunami.

Jan Egeland called on the international community to mount a “second Berlin airlift”, referring to the air shuttle that overcame the Soviet blockade of the German city in 1948-49, to avert the deaths of thousands of survivors left stranded in remote villages and exposed to freezing temperatures. “We have never had this kind of logistical nightmare, ever,” Mr Egeland said. “We thought the tsunami was the worst we could get. This is worse.

“We need a second Berlin airbridge, and if they could do that in the end of the 1940s — set up in no time a lifeline to millions of people — we should be able to do that in 2005.

“Tens of thousands of people’s lives are at stake and they could die if we don’t get to them in time.”

His words followed another usually strongly worded statement by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, who had earlier called for an “immediate and exceptional escalation of the global relief effort”.

“That means a second, massive wave of death will happen if we do not step up our efforts now,” Mr Annan said in New York. “I expect results,” he said.

“There are no excuses. If we are to show ourselves worthy of calling ourselves members of humankind, we must rise to this challenge.”

Britain yesterday pledged another £20 million in relief, taking the total promised so far to £33 million. The extra money will fund three Chinook helicopters, shelter, food and other aid. The helicopters will arrive in the region tomorrow.

The Foreign Office also confirmed the first British fatality, a 12-year-old boy who was in the area with his family when the earthquake struck.

The UN estimates that 120,000 survivors have still not been reached and that 10,000 more children could die in the coming days as aid workers still struggle to reach at least 20 per cent of survivors, many badly wounded, who have yet to receive any help.

The Pakistani military said it was stepping up its drive to get to the most remote areas using helicopters, mules and footsoldiers and would open 24 new helipads for aid flights in the Kashmiri mountains.

Survivors are continuing to flood down the mountains to devastated cities to report harrowing stories of death, destruction and ailing survivors trapped without help.

Hopes that the crisis might force co-operation between Pakistan and India over the disputed region of Kashmir dimmed when India distanced itself from Pakistan’s offer to open the Line of Control dividing Kashmir, saying no concrete proposal had been extended. Hundreds of villagers remain out of reach to rescuers, able to deliver aid only by helicopter in the treacherous Himalayan terrain. The first snows of winter fell last week and have continued, leading to fears for survival of the most vulnerable.

Doctors say many people are dying of injuries from which they would recover with medical help, but that the lack of helicopters is preventing help from reaching them.

Unicef, the UN children’s agency, said that hundreds of cut off villages needed urgent help and 10,000 children could die of hunger, hypothermia and disease over the next few weeks. “There are still too few helicopters to reach more than 1,000 remote villages with life-saving supplies that children urgently need,” Unicef said.

Aid workers say they have three, perhaps four, weeks left to distribute tents to shelter people from the winter.

“We have a short window of opportunity and a short few weeks to really get this into high gear,” Unicef said. “Shelter is crucial and if people don’t get that soon there will be a crisis of a different kind — people will start dying of exposure.”

Donations can be made through the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) website at www.dec.org.uk or by telephone on 0870 6060 900.

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