The death toll has risen to at least 25 people from an earthquake that struck Pakistani Kashmir, officials said yesterday, as residents mourned their dead and rescue work continued.
Tuesday’s earthquake leveled homes and shops, and split open roads in an area between the cities of Jhelum and New Mirpur to the north, part of which is in Pakistan’s portion of the disputed region of Kashmir.
“The situation is slowly returning to normal, the level of panic is now less among the people, although an aftershock was felt at night,” Police Deputy Inspector-General Sardar Gulfaraz Khan said.
Photo: AFP
Most of the damage happened in villages where old houses collapsed, Khan said.
In a town in Mirpur District, more than 200 people gathered to attend the funeral of a one-and-a-half-year-old child who was killed in the earthquake.
Women wailed around the bed where the child’s body lay covered in a blanket.
Another child in the town was buried the same morning after a wall collapsed on her.
“All of sudden, I received a call from my father that there was an earthquake and my little sister is badly injured,” her brother Mohammad Hameed said. “She was injured and [now] she has left us.”
The Pakistani National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said that 25 people had been killed, nearly all in Pakistani Kashmir, and more than 450 people injured.
Many people from the area slept outdoors overnight, and some were returning home yesterday to collect belongings and inspect damage.
NDMA Chairman Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal said the authority would bring in 200 family-sized tents for temporary shelters, kitchen sets, blankets and 50,000 bottles of water.
Troops and other emergency responders carried out rescue operations through the night, with engineers starting repairs on a key roadway that was severely damaged, the Pakistani Army said.
The road would reopen by this evening, Afzal said, adding that three bridges were damaged.
The quake disrupted power, but it was restored yesterday afternoon, the NDMA said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan offered condolences on Twitter to victims’ families, saying that he had directed the government to quickly offer relief and assess damage.
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