Rescuers give up hope of finding quake survivors

RESCUE workers yesterday abandoned the search for any survivors trapped in the rubble of last week’s earthquake, and a top UN official warned that reconstruction of the devastated region will cost billions of dollars and take up to a decade.

Weather forecasters warned that heavy rains expected in the quake zone this weekend could disrupt efforts to provide food and shelter to an estimated two million people ahead of the harsh Himalayan winter.

With Pakistan’s death toll from the October 8 earthquake estimated at more than 35,000, officials said there was virtually no hope of finding more people alive beneath the tens of thousands of buildings that collapsed.