Irishwoman describes her lucky escape

Mary Cummins was getting up in Islamabad last Saturday morning when the earthquake struck. From Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, she has been in the city for 3½ years working for the National Democratic Institute. It helps political parties organise.

"First the windows start rattling, then the sound, hard to describe, a rumbling, and the floor shakes violently. Because I hadn't finished dressing, my first thought was where to go. . . I was afraid to run down the stairs because the house was shaking so much. I was sure walls would start to cave in at any moment. The shake seemed to go on and on. In fact it lasted for about 90 seconds but it seemed much longer. You cannot stand still, I grabbed the doorpost just to stand still. When it stopped I ran downstairs and outside."

There were many aftershocks on Saturday, throughout Sunday and again yesterday, she said. "But I was very lucky. Two of my colleagues lost their apartments in the Margalla Towers, part of which collapsed. Fortunately, both of them are out of the country.

"But the scene at the towers was unbelievably sad. There was an eerie silence broken only by the intermittent sound of the jackhammer, as a UK special rescue team used specialist equipment to establish whether people were still alive. All the diggers and cranes stopped work until the rescue workers think it's no longer possible for people to be alive."

As many as 24 people in the towers could be dead, but no one knew for sure how many were missing, she said. Islamabad had withstood the earthquake in the main. A widow acquaintance of Ms Cummins had lost a son.