Thursday, October 20 2005 15:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Muzaffarabad: Helicopters and foot soldiers headed out of the main city in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) at daybreak today in a frantic attempt to get medical aid and supplies to remote villages damaged in an earthquake that killed more than 79,000 people.

The death toll in South Asia's October 8 quake jumped dramatically after regional authorities reported new figures based on bodies recovered and information from outlying areas, making it one of the deadliest temblors of the past century.

The Pakistani Government's official death toll is lower, still at 47,700, but central figures have lagged behind regional numbers. Those figures, from Pakistan's northwest province and the portion of Kashmir it controls, add up to about 78,000.

Aid workers fear casualties will rise further because communities without adequate food, shelter or health care will soon face the harsh Himalayan winter. Snow already has begun to fall in high mountains, and some upland villages now face subzero temperatures at night.

More and more, the flow of people who have walked out of the mountains themselves to aid stations in Muzaffarabad, have wounds that are badly infected, said Brig. Gen. Zafar Gondal, a doctor who runs the Pakistan army field hospital in the city.

"We are doing whatever is possible," he said, adding that many have to be evacuated to large city hospitals for the care that they need.