Pneumonia hits children in Pak quake zone

The United Nations begged the international community for extra help as it races against time to save millions of people threatened by disease and hypothermia because of the sudden change in the weather.

Some snow fell in mountain villages overnight and temperatures fell below freezing throughout the disaster zone, threatening to bring about a second wave of deaths that aid agencies have long warned of.

"Pneumonia has spread among children, according to data received from different places," Sardar Mahmood Khan, district health officer in Muzaffarabad, the ruined capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, told AFP.

"We are receiving hundreds of cases in different areas."

The October 8 quake killed more than 74,000 people in Pakistan and India but the biggest fears have been for the 3.5 million survivors left homeless by the disaster.