With hands, picks and shovels, desperate parents struggled yesterday to reach more than 850 children trapped in the rubble of two schools flattened by the weekend's massive earthquake in northern Pakistan.

The frightened voices of trapped children and the anguished wails of parents accompanied the frantic work in the Balakot valley in the mountains of Northwest Frontier Province, one of the areas worst hit by Saturday morning's devastating quake.

"Save me, call my mother, call my father," came the faint voice of a boy, again and again, from the rubble of a government school in which residents said about 200 children were trapped.

"Bring out my child, bring out my child," his mother wailed, beating her chest as other parents and relatives pulled out the bodies of four children, bringing Sunday morning's toll to eight.

Residents of the scenic resort town of about 20,000 people estimated 2,500 people may have been killed there and in seven surrounding

villages. They complained they had received no support from police and emergency services.

Thousands were injured, mostly women and children who were in their homes at the time of the disaster while their men worked in the open. Almost every second woman or child bore an injury.

Prime Minister Saukat Aziz said more than 18,000 people had been killed across northern Pakistan. President Pervez Musharraf appealed to Pakistanis to contribute to relief efforts.