Massive earthquake appeal in UK

British rescuers are searching for survivors in affected areas A rescuer's story

The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has launched a major appeal for victims of the South Asia earthquake, saying funds are "desperately needed".

Thirteen aid agencies agreed to join forces in helping the relief effort.

The UK government has provided more than £1m worth of relief for quake-hit areas, International Development Secretary Hilary Benn told MPs.

British rescuers are still hunting for survivors two days after the disaster, which killed at least 20,000 people.

A raft of charities had already launched appeals, with one, Islamic Relief - which has already allocated £2m - saying there had been a "massive" public response.

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DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said: "Many of our agencies are already working in this part of the world, and we are receiving overwhelming evidence that funds are desperately needed for relief work.

"Thousands of families are experiencing terrible suffering, particularly children, and we must help in every way we can."

Mr Benn said the sum committed by the UK government would rise as it responded to further requests for help.

He said he had told members of DEC that the government would pay for the transportation of any relief supplies they needed to send to Pakistan.

Search teams

Mr Benn added that the Department for International Development (DfID) was looking into providing further helicopters to assist the relief effort, along with the EU and the United Nations.

In his statement he said assistance from the UK government so far included:

The deployment of 75 search and rescue staff, including Rapid UK, the International Rescue Corps, and fire service workers, specialist dog search teams Canis and Bird, plus five dogs. They left on a DfID-chartered plane also carrying four DfID personnel, blankets and supplies.

Eight Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff and a further humanitarian worker from DfID flown to the region to help with assessment, co-ordination and support for British families searching for relatives.

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A grant of more than £140,000 to the World Health Organization for the shipment of health and trauma kits to Pakistan.

10,000 tarpaulins, 1,000 winter tents and 700 blankets given to charity Islamic Relief from UK stocks in Lahore and being trucked to Muzaffarabad.

Airlifts of more blankets and tents from Dubai, and a further 19,000 blankets from the UK also being given to Islamic Relief for distribution.

The people are in the street, they won't go into houses Willie McMartin, International Rescue Corps UK team rescues child 'Too many lost to mourn'

Britain has also made a £446,000 contribution to a European immediate response fund.

Search teams are aiding the effort in Pakistan's capital Islamabad and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, while Oxfam has sent engineers to help the sanitation effort.

The Ministry of Defence has offered assistance to Pakistan's government, said a spokeswoman.

A spokesman for Oxfam said they had people on the ground and another rescue team was going to Abbottabad in Pakistan on Monday. Public health and water engineers are also being sent by the charity, he said.

Earlier Oxfam said it estimated it would spend £4m on its relief effort.

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In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, Willie McMartin - International Rescue Corps team leader - said the situation was desperate.

"We have been told by the locals that anything up to 50% of 30,000 people in the area are actually dead and certainly the people are in the street, they won't go into houses," he told the BBC.

Specialists from Rapid UK were involved in the rescue effort at a collapsed apartment block in Islamabad, and IRC workers pulled a 14-year-old boy from a collapsed building in Muzaffarabad.

Tony Holland, of Rapid UK, said conditions were taxing and stressful, but there was hope that more survivors would be found.

It is estimated up to 1.5 million Britons have links to the area hit by the 7.6-magnitude quake which struck Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern India on Saturday morning.

The disaster is thought to have injured more than 42,000.

The Disasters Emergency Committee agencies are Action Aid, British Red Cross, CAFOD, CARE International, Christian Aid, Concern, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.