|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
Rescue Operations Resume in Afghanistan NewsMax WiresKABUL -- Rescue work resumed in northern Afghanistan Wednesday after a series of earthquakes and aftershocks killed an estimated 1,800 people over the last two days. Death toll estimates vary, although a U.N. spokesman told reporters in Kabul early Wednesday that it continues to rise. Relief agency Save the Children estimates as many as 5,000 people may have died. Australia said it will provide $1 million in emergency assistance to Afghanistan to help it cope with losses caused by the devastating earthquake, Alexander Downer, Australia's minister for foreign affairs, said Wednesday. Russia sent 21 tons of relief to Afghanistan early Wednesday, a spokesman for the Russian emergencies ministry said. An emergency ministry plane left Moscow for Kabul, where aid will be dispatched to the quake zone, he added. India said it was trying to figure out how best to help. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan asked U.N. agencies in Afghanistan to "do everything possible to help." Members of the Security Council also expressed condolences and assured the Kabul interim administration major help was forthcoming. Former Afghan King Zahir Shaw also showed support. "His majesty remains concerned about his people and his concern grows greater as reports from his supporters arrive illustrating the devastation of the earthquake," the king said in a statement from Rome, where he lives. "He calls on swift action from within Afghanistan and most importantly from the international community to lessen the impact of the tragic event." The United Nations and other international relief agencies have already sent doctors, medicines, tents and blankets from their stores in neighboring Pakistan and Tajikistan. Aid workers said most of the deaths happened when hundreds of buildings collapsed in the district of Nahrin after an initial quake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale devastated the region Monday evening. About 54,000 people live in Nahrin, which is about 108 miles north of Kabul. Panicked residents spent Tuesday night sleeping outside, as up to 35 aftershocks rocked the area, according to a report from the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan. Shock waves destroyed adjoining villages in the region, the office said in a statement. Two of the three roads to the Nahrin area are blocked, making rescue and relief efforts even more difficult, Afghan authorities said. Helicopters and airplanes from international peacekeeping forces are being offered to send supplies. Doctors Without Borders, a French relief agency, said it had set up a field clinic in Nahrin and will soon deploy mobile clinics. Geologists say a clash between Himalayan and Eurasian plates deep inside the earth crust causes earthquakes in the region. A previous earthquake March 3 killed at least 150 people. Two earthquakes in February and May 1998 left about 9,000 people dead in northeastern Afghanistan. Copyright 2002 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
A product that might interest you:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2012 NewsMax.Com |