PAKISTAN: Rescue work pulls down barriers of distrust in quake-stricken Pakistan while wounded are flown out of worst-hit quake area of Balakot.
Record ID:
872705
PAKISTAN: Rescue work pulls down barriers of distrust in quake-stricken Pakistan while wounded are flown out of worst-hit quake area of Balakot.
- Title: PAKISTAN: Rescue work pulls down barriers of distrust in quake-stricken Pakistan while wounded are flown out of worst-hit quake area of Balakot.
- Date: 14th October 2005
- Summary: CHAKLALA AIRBASE, PAKISTAN (OCTOBER 13, 2005) (REUTERS) CHOPPER TAKING OFF VARIOUS OF INJURED BEING BROUGHT OUT OF CHOPPERS VARIOUS OF RELIEF GOODS BEING LOADED ONTO TRUCKS FRENCH TEAM GETTING READY TO LEAVE FOR STRICKEN AREA MORE INJURED BEING BROUGHT OUT OF CHOPPER VARIOUS OF DUTCH TEAM, BOMBEROS SAN FRONTIERS, WITH THEIR SNIFFER DOG
- Embargoed: 29th October 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Pakistan
- City:
- Country: Pakistan
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVA9TIXXQC664R79N3WCTARJPMT1
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: Relief operations continued on Thursday (October 13) in one of the areas affected the most by the devastating earthquake in Pakistan. Residents of Balakot are housed in tents, which are being sprayed in an attempt to stop the spread of disease. Helicopter after helicopter lands to carry the many wounded to hospitals as international medical volunteers treat the injured as best they can in tented hospitals in Balakot. With the rise in tents to house the homeless, comes the rise in graves too. One old woman, shaking her head in uncomprehending sadness, sits by the graves saying "Everything is finished." Mistrust was put aside at a Pakistani airfield when U.S. airmen and soldiers jumped in to help unload an Iranian plane that flew in with a mobile hospital for victims of a massive earthquake. Six days after the earthquake shook Pakistan, killing thousands and razing scores of villages to the ground, Chaklala Airbase, near capital Islamabad, was alive with relief activity around the clock. Relief goods have poured in from across the globe and rescue teams, complete with rescue equipment and sniffer dogs, have converged on the traumatized country. As chopper after chopper flew out with relief goods and returned with the injured, and French, Dutch, Jordanian and Saudi rescue teams were gearing up to fly off to far-flung areas effected by the earthquake, a small drama was quietly unfolding in a remote spot of the Airbase. An Iranian plane, with a 12-bed mobile hospital unit had landed at the airport, but the small airbase did not have the equipment to offload the huge unit. The U.S. rescue camp nearby had a fork lift which could do the job and they didn't hesitate to help regardless of the deteriorating ties between Tehran and Washington over Iran's nuclear programme. The confirmed death toll in northern Pakistan from the massive 7.6 magnitude quake was 25,000 on Thursday, but some local officials and politicians say it could exceed 40,000. The United Nations estimates that 35,000 have died.
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