Feature: Muzaffarabad, bleeding and bruised after powerful quake

The 7.6 magnitude earthquake that rocked Pakistan, India and Afghanistan Saturday have left Muzaffarabad the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, bitterly bleeding and severely traumatized.

Once a beautiful mountain city, Muzaffarabad has become a purgatory on earth. Many houses have collapsed and streets are blocked by debris. Busy bazaars have disappeared. Countless people have been left homeless and the injured are being carried to the emergency centers: startling scenarios can been seen everywhere.

At the Islamabad Public School located in the city center, rescuers from Pakistan Army are busy searching for survivors from the rubbles of a two-storeyed building. A young girl is discovered and scrabbled out. She obviously died of head injuries.

Abdul Hamid, who lives near the school, told Xinhua in sobs that over 200 school children and their teachers were in the building Saturday when the most strong tremors in Pakistan's history rattled suddenly. All of them were buried under the debris and few have been discovered alive.

The Muzaffarabad Stadium has become one of the two emergency centers set up by the army. The western part of the stands have been completely reduced to ruins, and dozens of seriously injured people are lying here on stretchers and waiting for their turn to be rushed to hospitals in Islamabad -- the only big hospital in Muzaffarabad has also been destroyed.

Army helicopters are flying in from Islamabad with food and bottled water and leaving with the injured onboard. The stadium seems to have become a busy airport.

At one corner of the stadium, the army has set up an emergency surgical ward. Dr. Naeem Zia, who is in charge, said there are enough medicines in the affected areas. But since they do not have equipment, the doctors can only give basic treatment to the injured. Zia said on Sunday morning they have treated over 100 people.

Rescue work can not carried out extensively due to interrupted communication links with the outside. But foreign rescue teams from Britain, Turkey and China have arrived in the affected areas and begun their work.

GEA, a non-government organization from Turkey, has deputed an eight-number team to Muzaffarabad. Thirty-one year old team leader Ozgur Bozogul said he does not think there are many survivors since many collapsed houses are made of mud instead of cement and bricks.

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf Saturday noon visited Muzaffarabad and told reporters that about 15,000 to 20, 000 people have been killed in the city and that is not a carefully assessed figure.

Musharraf said since the land road to Muzaffarabad is blocked by landslides, the rescue work so far has been totally dependent on helicopters which can only provide limited help.

He stressed what the affected people need most now is tents, blankets, medicines and particularly helicopters and urged the army rescuers to fulfill their mission efficiently.

Source: Xinhua