(28 Jan 2001) Eng/French/Nat
XFA
More than six thousand people have been confirmed dead from Friday's earthquake on the Indian subcontinent.

The majority of the victims were from the dessert town of Bhuj in the Gujarat state in India, though over five hundred were from the city of Ahmedabad.

Ten people were killed in neighboring Pakistan.

The death toll was expected to rise by thousands more.

Angry survivors of Friday's earthquake are accusing authorities of conducting a sluggish rescue effort that has left thousands trapped under rubble with fading hopes of survival.

But the search still continues.

Cranes, generators, cutting tools, sniffer dogs, seismic monitors and polls with long cameras attached have begun to arrive to help in the rescue and recovery operations.

Experienced teams of rescuers from places such as Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Turkey have arrived to give assistance.

The International Rescue Corp, which includes rescue workers from Britain, were carefully picking through the rubble on Sunday.

Over the past 24 hours a few people have been dug out of the rubble.

Two French medical students survived the earthquake by huddling with local people in a small street when the 7-point-9 magnitude quake hit Bhuj.

Once the dust settled after the trembling, they began to help people who were injured.

Many had open fractures and exposed bones.

They say all they could do at the time was apply a local antiseptic to the wounds.

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"We felt nothing before the very strong tremor. We went to the most secluded place we could find, in a small street and it was very fast -- everything collapsed."
SUPERCAPTION: Laura Delot, French medical student

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"The walls of the houses collapsed around us. We were with three Indians who had huddled together with us and they managed to protect us, more or less.The earthquake last, I don't know. We couldn't see the sun anymore, there was so much dust."
SUPERCAPTION: Gael Leroy, French medical student

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"The army arrived two or three hours after the earthquake. We didn't do anything after that. There were people who had exposed wounds from the falling rubble, open fractures, bones sticking out all over the place. All we could do was to apply Dettol, which is a local anti-septic."
SUPERCAPTION: Gael Leroy, French medical student

Indian authorities say they should know by Monday if any more people are alive under the debris.

The emphasis will then switch to clearing the rubble and removing the dead bodies.

Friday's quake - India's strongest in more than 50 years - struck on Republic Day, a national holiday.

It shook the earth for more than 12-hundred miles (1,930 kilometers) and was also felt in Nepal, Bangladesh, in addition to Pakistan.

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