'My fears for family after quake'

As Pakistan says thousands of people died in a massive earthquake in Kashmir, Parveen Khan is one of many people in Britain waiting desperately for news from their family or friends.

Whole villages have been devastated by the quake

Parveen Khan, 31, is originally from Rawalakot, a Pakistan-administered area in the Poonch district - among areas feared to have been devastated by Saturday's quake.

Miss Khan and her parents left the town in 1979, when she was five, but she returns every two or three years to visit relatives.

"I have cousins there and aunties, uncles and young nieces and nephews," she said.

She said she was in shock after hearing news of the earthquake on the radio and listening to emergency details of how Rawalakot was affected.

Remote area

Miss Khan, who now lives in north London, said: "We really don't know anything. We are trying to get in contact with friends and family.

"My house is in a small village in a very hilly area, it's very remote and they have little access to resources. It just happened so quickly, it's just such a shock."

Miss Khan, a charity co-ordinator, returned from the town only a week ago after visiting the region with students.

An earthquake doesn't discriminate between anyone Parveen Khan

She said there was a large number of people from the region now living in Crawley, West Sussex, as well as in north London, adding that people were phoning each other to find out information as well as frantically trying to contact Kashmir.

But she said they were extremely hampered as phone lines were down and there were no mobile phone networks covering the area.

Information being passed on was increasingly worrying.

She had heard a main Kashmir hospital had been destroyed as well as a boys' college attended by her nephews.

Miss Khan fears her nephews could have been at the school as the quake happened around 9am local time.

"Most people who would have been affected will be poor, living in clay houses in small villages..some of my distant relatives live in these types of homes," she said.

Political differences

She believed many government buildings and shops were not built well enough to withstand such an earthquake.

Miss Khan added: "I just want everybody to be able to get together and help each other out.

"I know that Indian-administered Kashmir has also been hit, so I hope people can overcome political and religious differences to do this.

"I mean an earthquake doesn't discriminate between anyone, or between rich and poor, it is just random."

She said the charity she works for, the Kashmir International Relief Fund (KIRF), had launched an emergency appeal.

It would be asking for help from mosques in the UK and other places as part of its response.