Baby becomes first victim of cold as winter hits Kashmir survivors

A three-month-old baby has become the first Pakistan earthquake survivor to die of the cold as thousands more face the onset of winter without shelter.

Waqar Mukhtar died hours after he was admitted to hospital in Kashmir with pneumonia. Relief workers are warning that unless more aid reaches the affected area fast, his may be the first in a new wave of deaths from the earthquake.

Waqar was among the hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors who live in villages on the high mountainsides of Kashmir and neighbouring North-West Frontier Province - mountains where the first snow has just begun to arrive. He was rushed down the mountainside to hospital in the city of Muzaffarabad as soon as he fell sick, but it was too late.

In many villages, the survivors are still without adequate shelter, despite desperate pleas from the United Nations and the Pakistani government. Many live under makeshift tents made out of plastic sheeting, or crude shelters they have hammered together from planks and bits of corrugated iron roofing they have salvaged from the ruins of their homes.

Doctors have said that it is children who are at most risk from the cold. In many villages, there is only enough room in the tents for the women and youngest children. Men and boys as young as 14 sleep outside.

At least 87,000 people died in the 8 October earthquake. With survivors living in desperate conditions and aid still slow to arrive, aid organisations fear there could be thousands more avoidable deaths.

The crisis has been compounded by severe weather conditions that grounded helicopters for all of Sunday and most of Monday.

The helicopters were flying again yesterday but aid agencies are warning that once the heavy snowfalls set in, the helicopters could be grounded most of the time.

Mountain roads are being blocked by new landslides triggered by the snowfall. The Pakistani army has tried to close several roads because of the danger from rock falls, but villagers have insisted on using them to try to get tents and food.

At least 12 villages where survivors are still sheltering are at risk of being wiped out by landslides, a geologist working for the UN has warned. Professor Jean Schneider said the villages should be evacuated.

However, villagers have resisted evacuation, partly because they fear losing what little property they still own and partly because of the poor conditions in overcrowded relief camps in the towns and cities.

The UN has appealed for more relief funds. "The race to provide suitable shelter in time is not lost yet," Elisabeth Byrs, a UN spokeswoman, said. "But the consequences resulting from a lack of funds could result in more deaths."