Food and other relief aid flowed into more areas of northern Pakistan today as rescue operations in the devastating Kashmir earthquake increasingly became a relief mission for those who survived.
Kashmiris loot from a local charity truck outside Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan administered Kashmir
But four days after the quake that local officials believe may have claimed as many as 40,000 lives, many of the worst affected had yet to see any aid, despite huge pledges from around the world.
"Our resources are very stretched -- every time we rush to one place we hear of another place that is worse," said army Colonel Y.P. Sayyaj in the mountain town of Bata Mora in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.
"I know people are suffering but we have to prioritise. Everyone will get help in the end."
At the entrance to every small town and village driving up the mountain, entire populations waited in the hope of aid. At Bata Mora, about 250 km (155 miles) from Islamabad, a big crowd was waiting but no supplies had yet arrived.
The official toll from Saturday's quake remains at 23,000 dead and 51,000 injured in Pakistan, and 1,200 deaths on the Indian side of the border, called the Line of Control.
The United Nations has put the toll at at least 30,000.
Quake victims and international relief officials in both countries have expressed frustration at the pace of relief work.
The arrival of the first aid in the town of Battagram, about 30 km from Bata Mora, yesterday, caused scuffles.
"The people are very angry over the late arrival of the aid," said a local journalist. "Many people were lying under open sky in hail and rain yesterday with no shelter. Today, the weather is clear and the army has promised to give 750 tents to us."
Across the border, a villager in the Indian hamlet of Pingla Haridal told a Reuters team: "The world has forgotten we exist. You are the first people here asking about us besides some soldiers who pulled out bodies on the first day."