Indian Kashmir quake toll rises

People spent Sunday night in the open after rumours of fresh quakes

The death toll in Saturday's powerful earthquake which struck Indian-administered Kashmir now stands at 944, officials say.

Over 2,300 people have been injured and some 4,000 houses were damaged.

Rescue operations are still to reach many villages where people are spending a third night in the open. Many say they have yet to see rescue workers.

The BBC's Sanjeev Srivastava says over 350 people have died in and around one town alone, Tangdar, Kupwara district.

'No relief'

The majority of the deaths in the state were in the Kashmir valley, the authorities say.

Map of earthquake zone

Military aircraft have been air dropping burial shrouds and food to remote villages, the Associated Press reports.

Soldiers [and] VIPs keep driving past to Uri but no one has come to our village to find out what has happened to us Moushdaq Youssuf

Villagers in Uri say they are desperate for any help, which has yet to arrive.

"It has been three days and nothing is at our village, we have no water and we are running out of food" Mohammad Zafra, from Buniyar village, told AP.

Mr Zafra said he had hired a car to go to Uri, the nearest large town to get supplies.

He had to fend off angry villagers who mistook his loaded car for a shipment of aid, he said.

Moushdaq Youssuf, an off-duty policeman from the village if Pringal Uri, was also angry at the official response.

"Soldiers [and] VIPs keep driving past to Uri but no one has come to our village to find out what has happened to us," he told AP.

Shock

The BBC's Sanjeev Srivastava went to the town of Tangdar, one of the worst affected areas in the Jammu and Kashmir state.

He says the scale of devastation was shocking - there was barely a house left standing.

Many people are homeless and spend the cold nights out in the open.

Our correspondent says people feel helpless and frustrated and are at the administration. In some places food and medicine vans have been looted, he added.

Stretched resources

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to tour the affected areas on Tuesday.

On Monday, India's Home Secretary VK Duggal told reporters that telephone connections in Indian-administered Kashmir had been largely restored but remote areas like Tangdar in Uri district may have to wait until Tuesday.

The army, which is leading the rescue operations, is still to reach some isolated villages in the worst-hit areas of Baramulla and Kupwara.

A bridge that marks the Line of Control, the de facto border across the disputed region, and connects the only highway between the Indian and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir has been damaged and closed to traffic.

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