IT was just before 9am and 17-year-old Uzair Mohammed Qureshi was reading his chemistry book as the ground began to shake.

More than 3,000 people died today when a massive earthquake triggered landslides, toppled an apartment building and flattened villages of mud-brick homes near the border between Pakistan and India.

The death toll in the powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake near the Pakistan-India border climbed to more than 2,000 today and included 250 girls who were crushed by rubble when their school collapsed.

A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake reduced villages to rubble in Pakistan and India on today, killing hundreds of people. Pakistan’s army described the damage as widespread and said it included villages buried in quake-induced landslides.