'Quake killed 17 000 kids'

2005-10-31 15:45

Islamabad - At least 17 000 Pakistani children died when their schools collapsed in the giant October 8 earthquake and the trauma for survivors is worse than after the Asian tsunami, Unicef's chief said on Monday.

"We are estimating that at least 17 000 pupils were killed in schools, that's the one number that we have some estimate on," said United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) executive director Ann Veneman.

According to Unicef estimates about 1.6 million to 2.2 million children have been affected by the earthquake, which has killed more than 55 000 people and made 3.3 million homeless.

Veneman said even those children who have survived were traumatised.

"The trauma that these children have experienced I think has been particularly even worse than other tragedies like the tsunami, because so many of these kids were in schools," she said.

"They were in school at that time when so many of the school buildings came down. The ones that survived, many have injuries, many lost friends, they lost teachers, they lost important people in their lives."

Warnings about more deaths

The Unicef chief repeated warnings about a "second wave" of deaths if children are not provided with proper health care, clean drinking water and immunisation against disease.

"We are concerned about the possibility of a second wave of loss of life if children don't get the right interventions," she said.

A Unicef statement quoting Pakistani government estimates said 6 700 schools have been destroyed in North Western Frontier Province and another 1 300 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The agency was addressing the psychological needs of teachers as well the requirements of nearly 20 000 children "who will have physical impairments after this tragedy due to injuries and amputations", it said.

"This figure may increase as more villages are reached," it said.

- AFP