Rescuers search rubble for survivors

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan -- Rescuers struggled to reach remote, mountainous areas Sunday after Pakistan's worst-ever earthquake wiped out entire villages, buried roads in rubble and knocked out electricity and water supplies. The death toll stood at 20,000 and was expected to rise.\nIn this devastated Himalayan city, wounded covered by shawls lay in the street, and villagers used sledgehammers to break through the rubble of flattened schools and homes seeking survivors.\nThe quake collapsed the city's Islamabad Public School. Soldiers with white cloth tied around their mouths and noses pulled a small girl's dust-covered body from the ruins, while the body of a boy remained pinned between heavy slabs of concrete.\nThe United Nations said more than 2.5 million people need shelter after the magnitude 7.6 earthquake along the Pakistan-India border. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it urgently needed 200,000 winterized tents.\nPresident Gen. Pervez Musharraf complained of a shortage of helicopters needed to ferry in relief workers and food and medical supplies, and appealed for international help.\nIn Washington, President Bush said eight U.S. military choppers were being moved to help in rescue efforts, and he promised financial assistance. India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan, also offered assistance, as did Israel, which has no relations with the Muslim nation.\n"We are handling the worst disaster in Pakistan's history," chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.\nThe quake was felt across a wide swath of South Asia from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh. It swayed buildings in the capitals of three nations, with the damage spanning at least 250 miles from Jalalabad in Afghanistan to Srinagar in northern Indian territory. In Islamabad, a 10-story building collapsed, killing at least 24 people.\nLate Sunday, helmeted rescuers found a survivor after hearing his cries for help. The thin man in a blue shirt, looking dazed, emerged on his own with little help and stood in front of a crowd of cheering onlookers. One rescuer patted his head, and the man waved and pumped his fist in the air.\nPakistan said the death toll ranged between 20,000 and 30,000. India reported more than 600 dead, and Afghanistan said four were killed.\n"We have enough manpower but we need financial support ... to cope with the tragedy," Musharraf said in Rawalpindi, according to the state-run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan.\nHe also appealed for medicine and tents.\nMusharraf told the British Broadcasting Corp. he knew of as many as 20,000 people killed, and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told CNN about 43,000 people were injured.\nMusharraf said the only way to reach many far-flung areas was by helicopter because roads were impassable.\n"Our helicopter resources are limited," he told the BBC. "We need massive cargo helicopter support."\nMost of the devastation occurred in northern Pakistan. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of the capital, Islamabad, in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir.\n"I have been informed by my department that more than 30,000 people have died in Kashmir," Tariq Mahmmod, communications minister for the Himalayan region, told The Associated Press.\nTroops "have not started relief work in remote villages where people are still buried in the rubble, and in some areas nobody is present to organize funerals for the dead," he said.\nThe USGS said there were at least 25 aftershocks within 24 hours, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor.\nAt least 250 pupils were feared trapped at the Islamabad Public School, and dozens of villagers, some with sledgehammers, pulled at debris and carried away bodies. Several bright backpacks dotted the rubble. Nearby, a man cried over a child's body.\n"The communication infrastructure and systems are down and we can't get help to us, that should be the priority," principal Mushtaq Ahmed Kahn said.\nHundreds of people waited at bus stations, hoping to leave. The body of a man lay on a roadside, and a family pushed a body in a cart.\nHelicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas Sunday. When confronted by urgent appeals from villagers, Musharraf responded, "For heaven's sake, bear with us."\nBush said he spoke with Musharraf and "told him that we want to help in any way we can."\n"Thousands of people have died, thousands are wounded and the United States of America wants to help," Bush said from the Oval Office.\nAziz said the American helicopters would be drawn from coalition military operations in neighboring Afghanistan.\nBut Maj. Andrew Elmes, spokesman for NATO's 11,000-strong force, said it was outside the mission's mandate to operate beyond Afghanistan.