Families bury loved ones as Pakistan quake toll climbs; rescue operations underway

Many people from the area slept outdoors overnight and some were returning home to collect belongings and inspect damages after an earthquake, on Tuesday, rocked Pakistan

The death toll from an earthquake that struck Pakistan jumped to 37.

Officials said on Wednesday (August 25), as families mourned relatives and rescue teams sent supplies to the area. 

Officials said the extent of the casualties, who included young children, emerged a day after the 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck as authorities were able to reach towns and villages around the region outside main population centres. 

"We had dispatched survey teams in the entire area affected by the earthquake to collect details of the victims," Muhammad Tayyab, divisional commissioner for Mirpur, one of the worst affected areas, told Reuters, adding that around 500 people had been injured. 

Tuesday's earthquake levelled homes and shops and split open roads in an area between the towns of Jhelum and Mirpur to the north. 

In a town in Mirpur district, more than 200 people gathered to attend the funeral of a 1-1/2-year-old child who was killed in the earthquake. 

Another child in the town was buried the same morning after a wall collapsed on her.

"All of sudden I received a call from my father that there were an earthquake and my little sister is badly injured," her brother Mohammad Hameed said. "She was injured and (now) she has left us."

Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had earlier said 25 people had been killed and that most of the casualties were in Pakistan. 

Many people from the area slept outdoors overnight and some were returning home on Wednesday to collect belongings and inspect the damage.

Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal, the NDMA's chief, said the authority would bring in 200 family-sized tents for temporary shelters, kitchen sets, blankets and 50,000 bottles of water.

Troops and other emergency responders carried out rescue operations through the night, with engineers starting repairs on a key road that was severely damaged, the Pakistan Army's communications arm said.
 

File photo: Pakistan PM Imran Khan.