Friday, December 2 2005 14:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Muzaffarabad (PoK): Hundreds of survivors of the huge earthquake in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have sought treatment for cold-related ailments following a cold snap hospital officials said, as a Pakistani charity warned it had run out of funds to provide warm shelters for the homeless.

Hospital officials said 700 people were treated Wednesday for pneumonia, hypothermia and other cold-related illnesses, with hundreds more arriving yesterday (0112).

At least eight people are known to have died since the onset of the brutal Himalayan winter.

Doctors said the situation could worsen in the coming weeks if arrangements are not made quickly to provide adequate shelters for the 3.5 million people who lost their homes in the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 87,000 people on October 8.

Abdul Razaq, 28, told a far-too-typical tale.

The farmer from Nauseri, a village about 45 kilometres north of Muzaffarabad, is living in a tent in a refugee camp with his wife and their three children, along with the four children of a brother and his wife who were killed in the earthquake.

"We need a stove, more blankets and warm clothes to keep warm," he said, as his three children huddled in a blanket in one corner of the tent.

Meanwhile, Mazhar Rashid Abbasi, an official with the Pakistani charity al-Khidmat Foundation, said it badly needs funds to winterise the nine tent camps that it is managing for quake victims in Pak-occupied Kashmir and north-western Pakistan.