Pakistani archbishop saw birds flying in alarm when quake struck

Published: 2005-10-13

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNS) -- When the magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck northern Pakistan Oct. 8, Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore "saw the birds flying away in alarm." The quake's epicenter was Pakistan-administered Kashmir, about 220 miles north of Lahore, and the archbishop noted that 75 percent of the region's capital, Muzzafarabad, was destroyed. In a first-person account written for UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand, Archbishop Saldanha recounted receiving the news of the quake and relief efforts of the church. "Scores of villages reportedly were wiped off the map by landslides," he wrote. "An entire 12-story luxury apartment block in Islamabad collapsed like a house of cards, killing hundreds. "Within four days, the death toll rose," he wrote. Although on Oct. 13 Pakistani officials put the official death toll at 25,000, Archbishop Saldanha wrote, "I fear it will eventually go beyond 40,000."

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