Tide of Afghan survivors on desperate trek for help

KHOJA-KHAIRA, Afghanistan, Feb 10 (AFP) - A human tide of injured and homeless Tuesday streamed along muddy, cracked roads towards the town of Rostaq on a desperate trek for help after a huge earthquake ravaged their villages. Aid workers trying to assess the scale of the disaster passed at least 400 survivors heading for help, most on foot while the injured were carried on donkey-back. "We left this morning, we only heard last night there was help in Rostaq," said one man, as he trekked about 20 kilometres (12 miles) towards the town in the remote northern Afghanistan province of Takher. As temperatures dropped, even aid workers based in war-torn Afghanistan were shocked by the scale of the devastation from Wednesday's temblor, which hit 5.6 on the Richter scale. "These people are really desperate and we have to get them to shelter as soon as possible. But getting supplies in is very difficult," said Sandrine Chopin of the European Commission Humanitarian Office. Villages appeared to skidded down the sheer slopes of the mountains, leaving many houses flattened or buried under landslides. "My God, I've never seen anything like it," said Jim Soonaroane, medical coordinator for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) here. Some 4,000 people are reported to have died in the quake, but aid workers fear that hundreds more may be buried under a wall of mud and rubble, particularly in the far-lying villages further up the slopes. Huge cracks scarred the fields of the Dashte-Jaruzu district southeast of Rostaq, believed to have been the epicentre of the earthquake. Some of the cracks were up to 400 metres (1,320 feet) wide, an AFP correspondent saw. And the region's soft, crumbly earth had just given way in many places. In this village, Khoja-Khaira, locals said they had already found 322 bodies but feared many of the estimated 6,000 residents were still buried. A huge chasm zig-zagged up the centre of the village. On one side of the street the mud-and-wood houses looked normal, but on the other many had just simply crumbled. "The earthquake gave us no time to leave the house," said a distraught Wakil Kalan, 40, who lost his wife and four children when their house collapsed on top of them. "It was very sudden and powerful and ended very quickly," Kalan said. He survived the terrifying temblor, escaping with a bad cut to the leg, and was being consoled by friend on the undamaged side of town. Hundreds or survivors were living in small makeshift tents made of traditional Afghan rugs and bits of material erected in the courtyards of neighbours houses. Many said they were too scared to return to their homes, because cracks had appeared in the structure. Overnight they felt more aftershocks, locals said Tuesday. "There are now 25 people living in a tent in my courtyard. I don't know what to do with them, we're running out of food, and we have been waiting six days for people to arrive and help us," said Mohammed Abdul, in his 40s. The people living in this region are already very poor, eking out a hand to mouth existence as subistence farmers. Aid workers were encountering major problems in moving in medical and emergency supplies. "The remoteness and the weather are very big problems," an official from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). "However this is a long term commitment and I'm sure we will still be working here for the next six months in development and rehabilitation," he said. The scale of the disaster is only just now coming to light as people in Rostaq were slow to investigate since the region sits on a fault line and often experiences tremors. Aid workers were hoping to Wednesday complete their tour of most of the affected villages and have a clearer picture of death toll.