EFFORTS to reach stranded villagers in Pakistan’s northern mountains gathered pace yesterday after the country’s friends and foes both urged help for up to three million survivors rattled by fresh aftershocks.

NEW casualty figures from the South Asian earthquake have pushed the death toll to more than 79,000.

A strong aftershock shook Pakistan’s portion of Kashmir early today, rattling the nerves of people who survived this month’s quake that killed more than 54,000.

A halt in heavy rains today allowed helicopter relief flights to resume across Pakistan’s quake zone, but fresh landslides hampered efforts to move supplies by road and officials estimated the death toll could now be more than 54,000.

THE earthquake rattled dinnerware and nerves from Kabul to New Delhi, sending panicked city dwellers tumbling into streets where trees and utility poles danced and the pavement swayed sickeningly underfoot.

THE earthquake rattled dinnerware and nerves from Kabul to New Delhi, sending panicked city dwellers tumbling into streets where trees and utility poles danced and the pavement swayed sickeningly underfoot.

Villagers dug with bare hands into collapsed schools and homes today in desperate searches for survivors of a huge earthquake that killed more than 30,000 in South Asia.

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.

Elite Indian strike forces have moved closer to Pakistan’s border amid escalating tensions, following a suicide attack on India’s Parliament, the defence minister said.