India aid effort struggles to cope

Eight-year-old Akash recovers in Ahmedabad

India has launched an unprecedented rescue and relief effort as big new tremors, hunger and thirst add to the anguish of tens of thousands of homeless earthquake survivors in the state of Gujarat.

Foreign rescue teams joined the search for survivors in the rubble of western India's worst hit towns and cities - but time is running out for anyone left alive after Friday's giant earthquake.

India aid effort

5,000 soldiers

40 military aircraft including helicopters and transport planes

Three navy ships

11.5 tonnes of medical supplies to Bhuj

750 doctors and paramedics to Bhuj

The Indian Government announced it was seeking a $1.5bn loan from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to help reconstruction of the devastated areas.

With more than 6,000 confirmed dead and authorities saying the figure could reach 20,000, rescue workers are mostly finding bodies under the piles of concrete and masonry.

Five people, however, were rescued in Bhuj - near the epicentre of the quake - and another was found alive in the city of Ahmedabad.

Five thousand Indian soldiers, 40 military aircraft and several naval ships are being brought in and authorities are rallying extra personnel, from civilians to border guards.

Two of the ships - capable of taking 200 patients each - are being used as floating hospitals, and the third is being used to carry the injured to hospitals in Bombay.

Funeral pyres

Air force helicopters have flown in relief supplies of mobile kitchens, food, water, tents, blankets and power generators.

A 40-year-old woman emerges from the rubble of her home - two days after being buried alive

Defence Ministry spokesman S K Bhatnagar, said: "It is the biggest-ever rescue operation simply because this is the biggest-ever disaster."

However, the rescue effort is struggling to cope with the scale of the disaster and some of the worst-hit areas are still without any help.

More than half the houses in Bhuj - a city of some 150,000 people - were reduced to rubble and smaller towns in Gujarat were virtually flattened.

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Since all four of Bhuj's hospitals were crushed, trapping many doctors and nurses, 750 doctors and paramedics were flown in, along with 11.5 tonnes of medical supplies.

Bulldozers and excavating equipment have been sent to remove boulders and concrete slabs.

A bridge that connects Bhuj with the rest of Gujarat has been repaired by Indian soldiers, making it easier to bring in supplies.

But in fear of aftershocks, thousands of people have fled Bhuj by vehicle or on foot, carrying their belongings.

Aftershocks fear

Factory worker Harjivan Vyas, 37, said: "We are fleeing for our lives.

"There is no drinking water, no food. All houses are destroyed."

Earthquake deaths

17,000 died in Turkey in 1999

India's most deadly recent quake saw 10,000 die in 1993

The 1993 disaster was the most deadly quake to hit South Asia since 1935

Concern is also rising about the health hazards if bodies are not removed within days.

The sky over some areas is black with the smoke of funeral pyres as Hindu cremation rituals for the dead are carried out.

There have been an estimated 200 aftershocks - including one measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale which created widespread panic - since last Friday's main earthquake.

The initial quake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, was felt in neighbouring Pakistan, where authorities said 12 people had died, and as far away as Nepal and Bangladesh.

It was the most powerful quake to strike India since 1950, when an 8.5 magnitude quake killed 1,538 people in north-eastern Assam state.

It appears to be the world's most deadly earthquake since about 17,000 people died in Turkey in 1999.

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