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Quake toll jumps to estimated 35,000
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-11 21:25
Earlier in the day, U.S. military helicopters, diverted from neighboring
Afghanistan, helped ferry wounded from the wrecked city of Muzaffarabad, while
international rescue teams joined the search for finding survivors. Teams of
Britons, Germans and Turks used high-tech cameras to scan under piles of
concrete, steel and wood.
Thousands of civilian volunteers, some carrying picks and shovels on the
shoulders, walked north toward quake-hit towns.
Bad weather compounded the misery in the region, with heavy rain and hail
forcing some helicopters loaded with food and medicine to cancel or delay their
flights.
That official toll remained at around 20,000 people, but a senior army
official close to the rescue operations said government officials were
estimating that between 35,000 and 40,000 died. The official asked not to be
identified because he wasn't authorized to disclose the estimate to journalists.
About 10 trucks brought by Pakistani charities and volunteers rumbled into
that city, where efforts by relief workers to distribute aid turned chaotic as
residents scrambled for handouts of cooking oil, sugar, rice, blankets and
tents.
It was the first major influx of aid since the monster 7.6-magnitude quake
struck Saturday morning, destroying most homes and all government buildings in
this city, and leaving its 600,000 people without power or water. Most have
spent three cold nights without shelter.
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