Quake toll climbs to 2,000 - including 250 schoolgirls

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.

The quake reduced villages to rubble, triggered landslides and flattened an apartment building, killing more than 2,000 people in both nations.

In the capitals of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute, and panicked people ran from their homes and offices.

Tremors continued for hours afterwards.

Communications throughout the region were cut.

Most of the casualties were in Pakistan.

About 1,000 people died in Pakistani Kashmir, said Sardar Mohammed Anwar, the top government official in the area.

“This is my conservative guess, and the death toll could be much higher,” Anwar told Pakistan’s Aaj television station.

He said most homes in Muzaffarabad, the area’s capital, were damaged, and schools and hospitals collapsed.

About 860 people died in northwestern Pakistan, said Malik Zafar Azam, a senior provincial Cabinet minister.

Ataullah Khan Wazir, police chief in the northwestern district of Mansehra, said authorities there pulled the bodies of 250 students from a girls’ school that collapsed.

“This tragic incident happened in Ghari Habibibullah,” a district village, he said. About 500 students were injured, he said.