Quake destroyed 40,000 homes in Kashmir: Official

Rescuers had yet to reach 10 outlying villages, Mufti Mohamm-ed Sayeed, chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, told a news conference.

He said 73,450 houses, mostly made of timber and mud, were partially damaged by the 7.6-stren-gth tremor.

"Our engineers will assess the partially damaged homes to see if they are habitable or not," the chief minister said, adding that the final damage figure was likely to rise.

Some 143,000 people had been affected in two frontier districts alone by Saturday's quake, which claimed 1,300 lives in Indian Kashmir, the minister said.

"The damage is more in Uri (district) where 95 villages comprising of 120,000 inhabitants have been affected," he said, adding that in the northern Kashmiri district of Tangdhar, 23,000 people in 42 villages have been hit.

He did not give details of damage in Indian Kashmir's 12 other districts.

Ten million people live in the state.