Cold fears grow for quake victims

Survivors with little shelter are feeling the cold

India's government has said it is concerned that cold weather starting to grip Indian-administered Kashmir will hit earthquake survivors hard.

Thousands are without shelter and the first snows have been reported.

Military helicopters have resumed drops of urgently needed supplies to people in remote areas of the state after bad weather stopped flights on Tuesday.

Officials now say 1,400 people died in Jammu and Kashmir, 200 of them soldiers and people employed by the army.

Blankets

Home Secretary Mr V K Duggal said he is "extremely worried" about falling temperatures in Indian-administered Kashmir.

There was too much mud, our vehicles were sliding on the road Relief volunteer Mohammed Rafiq

Addressing a news conference in the capital, Delhi, Mr Duggal said the government was working to ensure that everyone in the quake-affected areas had proper clothing, tents and blankets as soon as possible.

He said 65,000 blankets had already been sent by the government along with 10,000 pieces of warm clothing from non-governmental organisations.

The bad weather has prevented rescue teams from reaching some areas on foot.

Rescue teams are still not able to reach some of the areas on foot.

"There was too much mud, our vehicles were sliding on the road, but today it is better," Mohammed Rafiq told the Associated Press.

He is a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Front - a separatist group - which has been supplying warm clothes and shoes to survivors in the remote village of Salamabad.

Aftershock

Work has also started on clearing the road leading to the Peace Bridge, which links both parts of divided Kashmir.

Authorities said that in some areas the road was buried under more than three metre of rubble.

The bridge itself collapsed in the quake.

Residents in Jammu and Kashmir were shaken awake on Tuesday night by an aftershock that rocked the area.

"I felt the earth start to move, my heart was very fast, I started to cry," said Ajaz Ahmad, from the village of Gowalta.

Six Indian soldiers were killed in a landslide in Kupwara district while carrying out rescue work on Wednesday, the army said.