Rescuers pull survivors, dead from Pak flats

Twenty-three bodies had been found by Sunday morning but about 90 people were pulled alive from the Margala Towers blocks where expatriate workers and middle-class Pakistanis lived.

One woman was rescued overnight but her hand had to be amputated to pull her free while a Pakistani man survivor had his leg amputated, a military official involved in the rescue effort said. He said about 50 people might still be in the ruins.

Three badly mutilated bodies were recovered on Sunday morning as rescue workers tried to tunnel into a huge mound of debris in their search for survivors, one worker said.

"We heard screams of people last night but we haven't heard anything today," said rescue worker Liquat Ali Khan, who used to work as a plumber at the apartments.