Pakistan confirms 57,000 dead in earthquake

Pakistan's government has confirmed that more than 57,000 people died in the earthquake that struck the north of the country …

Pakistan's government has confirmed that more than 57,000 people died in the earthquake that struck the north of the country last month.

The government previously gave a death toll of more than 55,000, with 78,000 injured.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told the National Assembly that thousands of people had been injured and hundreds of thousands left homeless by the earthquake, which devastated wide areas of Pakistani Kashmir and adjoining North West Frontier Province.

Another 1,309 people have been confirmed killed and 6,622 injured in neighbouring Indian-ruled Kashmir.

Pakistani regional officials say the total death toll in Pakistan will be much higher because data has yet to be compiled from remote mountainous regions cut off by landslides.

At 7.6 magnitude, the earthquake was the strongest to hit south Asia in a century.

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