Pakistan finished search and rescue operations to focus on recovering bodies

Pakistan on Friday called off its search for survivors of last week's devastating earthquake to concentrate on recovering bodies and rebuilding stricken areas. "The search and rescue operation is ended and from now the search and recovery operation is being launched, as there is a very slim chance of finding any survivors in the rubble now" in the seventh day after the quake, Maj. Farooq Nasir said.

Helicopters bringing injured people from remote villages flew in and out of the Neelum sports stadium, where doctors and nurses had set up a temporary hospital, since daybreak Friday in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. They brought aid workers out to the isolated regions, the AP says.

"This is a massive operation, we are not even counting how many flights are being made," Nasir said.

Saturday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake wiped out entire villages in Pakistan's portion of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and is believed to have killed more than 35,000. Tens of thousands of others were injured, and some 2.3 million left homeless.

T.E.