Thousands feared dead as quake jolts country.

(From Business Recorder)

Byline: MUMTAZ ALVI

Deadliest-ever earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale on Saturday morning killed over 2,500 and scores received injuries across Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, erasing to ground many villages in Mansehra, Haripur, Muzaffarabad and elsewhere. The death toll from the earthquake was expected to climb further.

Inter-Services Public Relations director-general Major General Shaukat Sultan said "deaths could be running in the thousands" nation-wide, as rescue teams were airlifted into the worst affected areas where roads had been cut off by landslides.

A military spokesman said that altogether about 200 soldiers were killed in the hardest-hit areas.

The earthquake struck at 8:50am and was centred in forest-clad mountains of Azad Kashmir about 95km north-east of Islamabad.

The first quake was followed by 18 aftershocks, which had magnitudes of between 4.6 and 6.3 over the next 10 hours.

They were felt across the subcontinent, shaking buildings in the Afghan, Indian and Bangladeshi capitals.

The US Geological Survey described the quake as major, saying it took place at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles).

Ghulam Rashool, an official at the Pakistan Meteorological Department, said it was the strongest earthquake in the Subcontinent since the 1905 Kangra earthquake that killed 20,000 people in India's Madhya Pradesh state.

Pledges of international support started to come in within hours, but details of the damage were difficult to obtain because telephone lines were down, mobile networks were overwhelmed and relief efforts were hampered by both landslides and heavy rain.

Volunteers, army personnel and law-enforcement agencies were engaged in recovering the dead and injured from quake-hit areas. The earthquake also hit Lahore, …