earth quake

Police and rescue workers at the site of a building that collapsed in Islamabad.



THIS IS MARGALLA TOWERS F-10 SECTOR ISLAMABAD.
A 10 STORY BUILDING WHERE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WERE LIVING AND DUE TO HOLIDAY IN SCHOOLS COZ TODAY IS SATURDAY ALMOST ALL OF CHILDREN WERE AT HOMES. SO WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE THERE.... THESE ARE LIVING APARTMENTS...at the time of earth quake almost 200 people where inside






Toll rises in major Pakistan quake

Saturday, October 8, 2005; Posted: 4:00 a.m. EDT (08:00 GMT)


(CNN) -- At least 19 people were killed and hundreds more injured when a magnitude 7.6 earthquake centered near Islamabad, Pakistan, jolted residents of three countries as far as 400 miles away.

Frantic efforts to rescue survivors were underway in Islamabad, where an apartment building collapsed.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, preliminary reports indicate "widespread damage," particularly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and the country's northern area, Maj. Gen. Shauket Sultan, Pakistani army spokesman, told CNN.

But communication disruptions in those areas meant information was sketchy, he said. A helicopter rescue operation was launched.

Fourteen of those killed were in Pakistan, including a girl killed when her school was damaged in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. Four others died in Manshera and nine in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and the country's northern region, authorities said.

Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir reported five deaths -- three in the town of Baramulla and two in Srinagar. Also, about 150 people have gone to Srinagar hospitals with a combination of physical injuries and shock, police said. Nearly 200 houses in the region have been damaged by the quake.

Initial reports from Islamabad indicate that a two-block area was damaged, Pakistani Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad told CNN.

Video footage from Pakistani television showed crowds of people climbing on the rubble of the collapsed apartment building and attempting to free those trapped under large concrete slabs. Some of the injured were carried away on stretchers.

The temblor's epicenter was 60 miles (about 100 kilometers) north-northeast of Islamabad and more than six miles below the Earth's surface, according to the Web site of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center.

The quake, which struck about 8:50 a.m. local time (11:50 p.m. Friday EDT, 3.50 a.m. Saturday GMT), was believed to be the strongest in Pakistan in nearly 20 years. Many citizens were still in their beds at the time.

"My wife and I grabbed our daughter and ran outside immediately," Danny Kemp, deputy Islamabad bureau chief for Agence France-Presse, told CNN. Pine trees and light poles were shaking, he said. "I've never felt anything like it."

The quake was "quite shallow," said David Applegate, senior science advisor for earthquake and geologic hazards for the U.S. Geological Survey. "That means the shaking is going to be very intense."

The fact that Islamabad was near the epicenter "means a fairly large urban population has experienced some strong shaking," Applegate said.

There have been some initial aftershocks, he said, "and we expect quite a number more" -- some in the 6-plus magnitude range. Those aftershocks could cause additional damage to structures already weakened by the first quake, he said.

The largest of those, which struck less than an hour after the strongest quake., was measured at magnitude 5.9, according to the National Earthquake Information Center. Others included two 5.6-magnitude quakes and one at 5.4 magnitude, the center said.

Pakistan traditionally has been an active region for earthquakes, Applegate said. Saturday's quake was a "thrust" earthquake, caused by friction between the Indian subcontinent as it pushes against Asia. Although it is the same kind of mechanism that creates tsunamis, the quake was centered far enough inland that there was no danger of a tsunami, he said.

Aftershocks could continue for several days before beginning to decrease, Applegate said.

The quake was also felt in India and Afghanistan. In New Delhi, some 400 miles from Islamabad, buildings swayed and furniture moved, causing widespread panic among residents, many of whom rushed into the streets.

A 7.6 quake is classified as "major," according to the scale used by the center.

Japan's Meteorological Agency judged the quake's magnitude as a 7.8.

In February 2004, a pair of earthquakes registering 5.5 and 5.4 magnitude, respectively, killed at least 21 people and injured dozens more and destroyed hundreds of homes built of mud, stone and timber in a rugged, mountainous area about 90 miles northwest of Islamabad.

In January 2001, some 30,000 people died in a 7.7 quake in western India.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Satinder Bindra, CNN Producer Syed Mohsin Naqvi and Journalist Mukhtar Ahmed in Srinagar contributed to this report.