Villagers dug with bare hands into collapsed schools and homes yesterday in a desperate search for survivors of a huge earthquake that has killed 30,000 in South Asia, with Pakistan calling it the country's worst-ever disaster and appealing for urgent help.

The vast majority of the deaths from Saturday's 7.6-magnitude quake were in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, though several hundred were also reported in India-controlled Kashmir.

"I have been informed by my department that more than 30,000 people have died in Kashmir," said Tariq Mahmmod, the communications minister in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Dozens of villages were flattened in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, killing farmers, soldiers and schoolchildren, and triggering landslides that blocked rescuers from many devastated areas.

Two survivors were pulled from a destroyed apartment building in Pakistan's capital.

"We are handling the worst disaster in Pakistan's history," said Major General Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's top military spokesman.

"We do seek international assistance," Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said. "We have enough manpower, but we need financial support."

The quake and its aftershocks were felt from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh.

Earlier Pakistan's Interior Minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao said at least 1,748 people had died in Pakistan and 17,388 in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, and a further 42,397 were injured. The worst hit city was Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, where 11,000 died, Sherpao said.

Indian authorities reported 689 deaths and 900 injured, while Afghanistan reported at least four deaths.

In India-controlled Kashmir, most deaths occurred in the towns of Uri, Tangdar and Punch and in the city of Srinagar, said B.B. Vyas, the area's divisional commissioner.

(China Daily October 10, 2005)