Reporters' log: S Asia earthquake

Survivors have spent another night out in the open

A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 has hit Pakistan, northern India and Kashmir, the territory disputed by the two countries since independence from Britain in 1947.

More than 1,000 people are thought to have died, with reports of casualties still coming in.

BBC correspondents in the region report on the impact of the earthquake.

Reporters' Log: Earthquake Oct 8

Reporters' Log: Earthquake Oct 10

Barbara Plett: Islamabad, Pakistan : 1837GMT

The has army brought food and medical supplies to the Pakistan-administered Kashmir's regional capital, Muzaffarabad.

But Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, said the surrounding villages were some of the area's hardest hit and these are still difficult to access.

Mike Wooldridge: Islamabad, Pakistan : 1702GMT

Pakistan is now putting the death toll at over 19,000 with more than 40,000 injured. If the world is still taking in the magnitude and destructive power of this earthquake, so too is this nation.

The sight of parents in the worst-hit of the northern areas using picks and shovels and their bare hands in a desperate attempt to find their children in collapsed schools may be one of the most dreadful images of this earthquake so far.

But there is clearly much more to come.

Because of the landslides and present shortage of helicopters, there are still places to be reached and assessed.

British specialist earthquake rescue workers have spent their first day in the country helping to dig survivors out of the debris of the large apartment building in Islamabad that was brought down in the disaster.

As the day gave way to a second night's operation under arc lights, sniffer dogs joined in the search, but the team says that because each floor of the building pancaked into the one below, it is now a race against time.

Andrew North: Balakot, Pakistan : 1641GMT

Balakot is set in a beautiful mountain valley. Look up at the rounded peaks and the slender pines that fringe them, and you see no evidence of what happened on Saturday.

But on the valley floor, it is a scene of vicious, sudden destruction.

Homes flattened, concrete pillars poking out at crazy angles, landslides blocking roads and thousands of people are feared to have died here.

Many more are still believed to be trapped under the rubble.

But more than a day later, the only outside help arriving here is from the occasional Pakistani military helicopter dropping food supplies.

And many survivors have now begun to leave, often bringing their dead with them.

It was a distressing sight, watching the procession of people moving down the road, the bodies of loved ones on their shoulders.

What perhaps makes this disaster even crueller is how random it has been.

Just a short drive from Balakot, many villages appear to have escaped largely unscathed, just the odd wall down or a roof caved in.

Yet in Balakot, one man told me, every family has been touched by death.

Altaf Hussain: Srinagar, India : 1612GMT

People in Indian-administered Kashmir are restless and desperately wanting to know about their relatives on the other side.

The BBC office in Srinagar has been receiving calls from people in different parts of the valley, asking for information regarding the affected areas in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the wellbeing of their relatives.

I have received calls myself from many people.

But telephone link between the two parts of Kashmir is not working after the earthquake.

Mike Wooldridge: Islamabad, Pakistan : 1540GMT

The worst fears of the hours immediately after the devastating earthquake are now being realised.

In the words of Pakistan's military spokesman, many villages have been wiped off the face of the earth.

The earthquake brought down many schools - parents have been seen using picks and shovels and their bare hands in desperate attempts to rescue their children.

And on top of all this, key roads remain cut off and helicopters are the only way in to many places.

In Islamabad, a specialist British team is now working alongside Pakistani rescuers, searching for survivors in the debris of a large apartment block.

President Musharraf and his ministers have appealed for more aid from outside. They see blankets, tents, helicopters and medicines as the top priorities.

Sanjev Srivastava: Uri, Indian Kashmir : 1525GMT

It is a grim situation - there are not enough stretchers or coffins.

The army is working hard in a relief zone, but it is struggling to keep up with the dead coming in faster than the injured.

The army is also battling losses of its own, with many soldiers killed in their barracks.

As everyone braces themselves for a long, cold night ahead, the one thing keeping the rescue teams going is the prospect of finding more survivors.

Mike Wooldridge: Islamabad, Pakistan : 1500GMT

The task now is to listen out for voices; that is why there are so many appeals for silence.

There are cavities and voids within collapsed buildings which could hold survivors, and rescuers believe there are a couple of children in one building.

There are scenes of great poignancy - half-an-hour ago they brought up the body of a girl.

The rescue worker held up the child's shoe, to see if anybody could identify her by it.

Aamer Ahmed Khan: Muzaffarabad, Pakistan : 1347GMT

Muzaffarabad is looking like a ghost town.

People have left in large numbers as the quake has left the town unliveable. There is no electricity, no telephones, food supplies are running short and medicines are scarce.

The resourceful have left already, while those who cannot do so are just sitting by the roadside, heads in hand, many crying, others still in shock.

All that one hears is the constant clattering of military helicopters reverberating through the valley and the wailing of women.

In many places, people are grouped around piles of rubble along the river bank.

They say people buried underneath are still alive, and many are trying to move the concrete slabs with their bare hands.

Anger against the government is growing by the minute.

People say there is no help at hand and the only time they see the government is when a military helicopter passes overhead.

The road from Abbottabad opened briefly but was closed again as more landslides took place.

The mountains around look fragile and on one side of the city, the mountainside is still falling bit by bit.

Sanjev Srivastava: Uri, Indian-administered Kashmir : 1322GMT

A relief and medical camp set up by the Indian army on the outskirts of Uri is one symbol of the devastation that has struck this picturesque valley.

Though the army is trying to maintain some calm and order while supervising the relief work, there is far too much death and destruction around for it to succeed.

There are the odd stories of miraculous escapes, keeping the morale of the rescue teams high, and making them search for survivors under the debris of collapsed houses.

One survivor is a nine-month-old child, pulled out from under the debris with his mother. But his three siblings have not been so fortunate.

The injured are being airlifted from this army base to nearby hospitals, but the number of dead coming in is higher.

Rescue teams have still not been able to reach many villages in the mountains as landslides have blocked access.

Relief work is also likely to be affected with light fading fast.

With aftershocks continuing, not many people here want to remain indoors, so even those who have survived the earthquake will be sleeping out in the open, in what looks like what will be a very cold night ahead.

Andrew North: Balakot, Pakistan : 1230GMT

It is a very distressing scene here: hundreds of people on foot on either side of the road, many of them carrying the bodies of dead relatives in makeshift stretchers on their shoulders.

The lines go on and on, and people all have the same story: they have lost their homes, and so far, they are not getting any shelter or help.

So they have had no choice but to leave.

The authorities have started to clear the roads, but have not been able to get supplies or equipment into Balakot itself.

I have seen hundreds of flattened buildings in the area - people say there are still many survivors trapped underneath.

Several people have told me they have heard the cries of relatives.

It is too early to assess how many people have died here - but one man told me, in the centre of Balakot, every family has been touched by death.

Barbara Plett: Islamabad, Pakistan : 1148GMT

In Islamabad, several more survivors were pulled out of the rubble of a collapsed apartment block, this time with the help of a British team, using sensitive sound detectors.

The rescue operation is fully underway here, but the damage is much greater further north, and their rescue efforts have barely begun.

Entire villages have been destroyed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

In the region's capital, Muzaffarabad, some aid has only just arrived, and rescue is still by helicopter.

The town of Balakot in north-west Pakistan has also been hit hard. Schools have collapsed, and locals are desperately trying to dig hundreds of children out of the rubble.

Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf has appealed for financial aid for tents and medicine, and helicopters.

There is an urgent need for more aircraft to carry supplies and rescue teams to the worst-affected areas.

Zulfiqar Ali: Muzaffarabad, Pakistan : 1052GMT

After nearly a 10-hour drive from Islamabad, I could not get past Lohargali, 10km (6 miles) from Muzaffarabad.

Landslides prevented me from going further in my car.

The only way to reach my family in Muzaffarabad was by foot, but I could not go further since it was 0200.

I spent the next four hours in Lohargali, and at 0600 I started off for Muzaffarabad on foot.

Muzaffarabad is difficult to recognise. There is much more devastation than Islamabad.

There are still some people alive under the debris of shops, hotels, hospitals, schools. Rescue efforts are going on with help of local people.

Army helicopters have been pressed into service to distribute aid supplies and carry back the injured to Islamabad.

It is difficult to say how many people are dead, injured or still trapped inside.

Death and destruction is visible everywhere.

My house was destroyed and my wife and children spent the night inside a car.

Other people's houses escaped with cracks, but they were too scared to spend the night in their homes.

Instead they chose roads, open grounds and even graveyards to wait until the first light of the morning.

There is no electricity and telephone facilities available in the area now. Food and water is scarce.

Devastation is complete here.

Andrew North: Abbottabad, Pakistan : 0912GMT

Here at the main hospital in the region, it is a scene of shock and misery.

Hundreds of patients, many mourning lost relatives, are being treated for their terrible injuries in makeshift wards, set up in tents.

Many people have crushed limbs and badly cut faces, many will have to have arms and legs amputated.

With aftershocks continuing, doctors feel it is unsafe to keep people inside, but with large amounts of people arriving every hour, they feel they have no option other than to keep them inside.

Doctors say they are coping but they need help now to prevent infections developing.

Water supplies are cut off, they do not have enough food for all those arriving - and this is just a day after the disaster.

And with this being the main hospital in the region they can expect to receive thousands more casualties over the coming days.

One doctor has said this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Mike Wooldridge: Islamabad, Pakistan : 0833GMT

Here in Islamabad this morning, some good news in the midst of this tragedy.

A British specialist earthquake rescue team joined Pakistani rescue workers who had heard voices from within the rubble of the collapsed apartment block here.

The diggers and bulldozers fell silent for some two hours of delicate prising apart of the entrance to a cavity from where a young man and a woman were eventually pulled out to cheers and applause.

But two others who were with them were dead.

The British team say there are around 60 people in the ruins of the apartment block, and it is now a race against time.

They are now focussing on an area where it is thought two children might still be alive.

Lyse Doucet: Islamabad, Pakistan : 0825GMT

Building standards have been called into question here in Islamabad, there is some talk of suing building contractors responsible for some of the new buildings that have collapsed.

Meanwhile, the picture is still emerging from northern Pakistan, but we have heard of hundreds being trapped as schools and mosques caved in.

We will have to wait for roads to be cleared before we know for sure what exactly happened.

This area has seen a lot of seismic activity - about 10 tremors so far this year - but none match the biggest tremor in a century, described by President Musharraf as a "test for the nation".

Just now doctors have run past me, a sign that they have found another body.

Nick Bryant: Muzaffarabad, Pakistan : 0742GMT

The town of Balakot appears to have borne the brunt of the earthquake.

The devastation is almost complete.

This once-bustling market has been flattened. So, too, the hilltop residential areas which overlook it.

Just a handful of buildings are still standing, but most have suffered major structural damage.

Here in Muzaffarabad, the situation is better, but still terrible. The entire side of its newest multi-story hotel has been completely shorn away. Many buildings have been reduced to rubble.

Muzaffarabad is ground zero for the Kashmiri earthquake. I am at a cricket pitch that has become the focal point for the relief efforts with helicopters coming in one after another trying to ferry people away to hospital.

The pitch is absolutely littered with beds, mattresses and stretchers carrying the injured.

There is a man next to me who has quite clearly broken his leg, it is very bloody yet he only has a primitive splint keeping his leg straight.

He is waiting to go to hospital but he is far back in the queue. They are trying to see who needs treatment first, but there are people with severe injuries who are at the back of the queue.

Despite the authorities bringing in helicopters as quickly as possible, there are many people who have been waiting for hours and will have to wait further still.

The only way to get here is by air, many parts of this area have been filled in by landslides.

The scenery here is stunningly beautiful, but many of the mountains here have shorn away and the rubble is blocking the roads and making rescue by road nigh on impossible.

The Pakistani army is trying to get in as many helicopters as possible to bring in food, blankets and medicine, but at the moment they are in desperate need of help to meet the massive demand for help here.

I covered the tsunami and the Bam earthquake in Iran, and frankly I have not seen anything as bad as this.

Mubashar Zaidi: northern Pakistan : 0640GMT

I could hear cries of students trapped in a school building in Balakot when I reached there on Sunday. Shopping malls and mosques have collapsed here.

A doctor at the local Ayub Medical Hospital told me there were 12 people killed and nearly 300 injured.

The destruction was graver at Mansehra - I heard stories about school buildings collapsing in Garhi Habibullah, Batal and Balakot.

The road leading to Balakot was blocked by landslides. I walked for a few miles to reach the place.

The area was completely dark. Survivors had built a small fire. At least 1,000 children are trapped in four school buildings here.

A group of people were trying to rescue a child from the rubble. They told me that the child was well and talking.

However, the rescuers did not have any equipment to cut through the rubble and get the boy out.

"They [people] are alive but we do not have the expertise to get them out," a local woman said.

I did not see any government or army rescue workers in the area where some 40,000 people live.

"All we could see for the whole day is just two military helicopters. We whistled and waved to them but they vanished," a local resident Sajid Hussain said.

The government has officially put the death toll at 18,000, but it could possibly be higher.

There are many areas such as Balakot which have totally turned into rubble and rescue teams are yet to reach the area.

Barbara Plett: Islamabad, Pakistan : 0606GMT

It has been a rough Saturday night in Islamabad.

Rescue workers worked through the night trying to pull survivors out of a 10-storey apartment block that had collapsed into rubble.

Dozens were found dead, and dozens pulled out alive.

Reports from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir suggest that whole villages have been flattened and emergency services are yet to reach most villages.

A reporter who walked 12km to reach Muzaffarabad says that the extent of damage was great.

Lot of buildings have collapsed and people are still trapped in the rubble. People spent the night out in open in the driving rain.

Officials here are saying that the death toll is 18,000. That figure will probably rise because we still do not have a complete picture of the damage in the Pakistani side of Kashmir.

Pledges of aid have come from all over the world. There is a British rescue team already in Islamabad using sophisticated sound equipment and working on the apartment block debris.

Aid needs to get across the country as quickly as possible - especially the affected areas of Pakistani side of Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province.

It is a grim picture, and it is bound to get grimmer.

Reporters' log: Saturday 8 October