Villagers trekking down from parts of the Kashmir mountains that have not been visited since the weekend's earthquake say they have left behind scenes of death and desperation.
Kashmiris sort out clothes donated for survivors of the earthquake. Thousands of people in Indian-controlled Kashmir waited for help as villagers complained they had run out of food and water
The death toll in Saturday's 7.6 magnitude earthquake in northern Pakistan and India reached at least 21,000 people today, but that may not include large parts of the region that are still inaccessible because landslides have swept away roads.
"There are dead bodies everywhere and those who are injured don't have a drop of water," said Nasar Ahmad, who was carrying his injured young niece on his back into Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir.
A landslide shortly after the earthquake struck swept about 200 people to their deaths in the Neelum river that flows by his village of Kotali, he said.
The army was trying to reopen the road that runs along the river, on one steep side of the Neelum Valley. Many people were walking over the landslide, while an army bulldozer tried to cut a new road at Kamsar, about five kilometres from Muzaffarabad.
Some people were trying to get to Muzaffarabad to get help while other were desperate to go the other way, up the valley, to reach their homes.
"I don't know what happened to my family," said one young man who was in Muzaffarabad when the earthquake struck. "The government won't be able to open the road for a year. I have to go now," he said as he hurried off across the landslide.