Shocked countries sending help

2005-10-10 12:29

London - Governments and aid agencies around the globe deployed emergency rescue and medical teams, pledged money and sent aid and condolences to earthquake-ravaged Pakistan on Sunday as the country's President General Pervez Musharraf appealed to the world for help.

The 7.6-magnitude quake on Saturday in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir killed more than 30 000 people, mostly in Pakistan-controlled territory in the volatile region.

India also reported several hundred deaths, and Afghanistan said one girl was killed.

Musharraf said Pakistan needed medicine, tents, cargo helicopters and financial assistance to help survivors, the news agency Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

"We do seek international assistance. We have enough manpower, but we need financial support," Musharraf said.

Many countries quickly assembled aid and readied it for transport to the mountainous region, where landslides are reported to be making access extremely difficult.

Some teams had already reached Pakistan on Sunday, including the first contingent of a British emergency rescue team and a United Nations team of top disaster co-ordination officials who set up three emergency centres to co-ordinate relief efforts.

"We have to be quick," said UN spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs.

A Spanish group, united firefighters without frontiers, said its rescue team had already arrived in Islamabad with two large field hospitals and two tons of emergency equipment.

"We have sent 21 specialists in search, rescue and emergency medical attention of victims, as well as seven rescue dogs," said Enrique Fernandez, director of operations.

A Chinese emergency response team of 50 arrived in Islamabad on Sunday, also with search dogs, as well as communication equipment, blankets, medical and relief supplies, Pakistan said.

A second Chinese planeload of relief goods was due Monday.

Russia said it was sending a plane carrying emergency workers, trucks, equipment and two weeks' supplies on Sunday, and the Swedish rescue services agency was sending tents and blankets. It also offered communications equipment.

Pope Benedict XVI and Queen Elizabeth II joined senior officials of South Korea, China and Iraq on Sunday in sending condolences to the people of Pakistan.

The pope told the crowd in St Peter's Square that he prayed "that the international community will be swift and generous in its response to the disaster".

- AP