Quake survivors force way onto choppers

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan --Dozens of quake survivors forced their way onto two U.N. helicopters involved in the relief effort and demanded to be taken out of a Kashmir village Friday, a U.N. official said.

Elsewhere, three children died when a fire caused by candle swept through their tent as they slept near their home ruined by the Oct. 8 earthquake.

Aid workers said about 50 villagers forced their way onto two U.N. helicopters after they landed in the village of Bana Mula, about 85 miles southeast of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

The helicopters took off with the villagers on board and landed safely at their destinations in Muzaffarabad and the city of Abbotabad, said the aid workers, who asked not to be identified because they are not allowed to speak to the media. The villagers fled after the choppers landed, they said.

"I presume they were coming down from the mountains and basically wanted out. It's very cold there," said Larry Hollingworth, the U.N. deputy humanitarian coordinator. He said the "regrettable incident" was being investigated, and the U.N. was in touch with the Pakistan military and civil authorities.

He could not confirm a report that one U.N. staffer was punched by the villagers who jumped onto the helicopters.

Helicopters are vital in the mammoth relief effort, particularly after heavy snows this week blocked roads, hampering the delivery of aid for several days. Authorities say the military and other aid groups have resumed relief activities in the past couple of days as the weather has improved.

The quake killed about 87,000 people and left 3.5 million others homeless. Many survivors have been sleeping in tents and tin shelters in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir and northwestern Pakistan.

Pakistan's top relief official, Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmad Khan, on Friday told a news conference in Islamabad that soldiers and engineers were clearing roads and building shelters in the quake-hit areas. He also said that there was no danger of outbreak of cold-linked ailments in quake-affected areas.

The World Health Organization, however, says at least 18 people have died of pneumonia in the past six weeks, five of them in the past week. Nevertheless, it says the situation is under control.

The tent fire, the latest in a series of similar accidents, killed three brothers between ages 2 and 6 late Thursday in a village on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, said Liaquat Hussain, the deputy commissioner in the region. Two other children and a 75-year-old man were injured and taken to a hospital.

Hussain said the family had pitched the tent next to their home, which was destroyed by the quake. He said the fire was caused by a candle inside the tent -- which, like virtually all the canvas shelters in the quake zone, lacked heating.